
Qass. 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






[s-t'd ^Q\ 



hi) 



AryyffnfhiJMEi 



.% 



y/.J/vp 



m^ 




-w mmm, 




f:5duTH 



PDSQCldllMS"** 




fOpT ,„, k\'a- 






.uU5T^ATeD^^^p^^^,5,gD 



Price 25 Cents. 
VA. NAVIGATION CO, 



THE VIRGINIA NAVIGATION COMPANY'S 

PALACE SFEAHER 

POCAHONTAS. 

TIME-TABLE: 

Leaves RICHMOND M. M.; Arrives HORFOLK 5:30 P. M. 

(MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY.) 

Leaves KORFOIK 7 A. M.; Arrives RICHMOSD 5:30 P. M. 

(TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY.) 

TOUCHING AT ALL INTERMEDIATE POINTS. INCLUDING 

Historic Jamestown, Newport News, 
Old Point Comfort (Fortress Monroe,) 

AND PASSING THROUGH 

Dutch Gap Canal. 



QUICKTIME. FIRST=CLASS MEALS. UNRIVALLED HISTORICAL INTEREST 
THROUGHOUT THE TRIP. 



Rail connections with all trains at both Richmond and Norfolk, and 
steamer connection from and to Cape Charles, Washington and Baltimore at 
Old Point Comfort, and M. & M. T. Co. for Boston ; CD. S. S. Co. for 
New York, at Norfolk ; at City Point for Petersburg, 

State Rooms can be reserved for the night before at eitrier Richmond or 
Norfolk. Tourists can go direct from train to boat. Card Rooms and 
Private Parlors reserved upon application. 



Fare between Richmond and Norfolk, $1.50; Round Trip, $2.50. 
Second-Class, $1.00. 



J. W. MCCARRICK. agent IRVIN WEISIGER, GEN. MANAGER 

NORFOLK, Va. Richmond, Va. 

D. M. WALLER, AGENT, OLD POINT COMFORT, VA. 



Hfloat on tbe Jamce. 



PUBLISHED BY 

V 



THE VIRGINIA NAVIGATION CO. 



■\\^^ 



.C-\ 



NEW YORK. 

THE Giles co.ypany 



SWORD AND PLOWSHARE. 



the; new "princess of the james. 




^■^^^^©IHE earliest voyagers in European 

Tl craft sailing up from the Spanish 
1 Indies along the southern coast 






ful, 



"^1 



^ 




STEAMER POCAHONTAS. 



turned their prows westward 
above stormy Hatteras, thank- 
perhaps, for a haven, and searching 
for a strait leading to the ever-golden 
unknown, found, instead, a great river, 
along the densely wooden shores of 
which they drifted far into the in- 
terior, until foaming rapids forbade 
them. These venturous and insatiable 
sailors found the forests and savan- 
nahs of this pleasing stream peopled 
with a native race of noble mien and 
not less haughty or capable than the descendants of the English fore- 
fathers who, nearly a century later, came sailing into sparkling Hamp- 
ton Roadstead, bestowing upon the stream a roj-al name and estab- 
lishing along its banks a chain of estates, wdiich have sustained the 
purest aristocracy and nurtured many of the greatest statesmen this 
continent has ever known. 

For nearly two centuries the inevitable struggle, which ever3-where 
attends the efifacement of an old race by a newer strain, continued. 
The alluvial valley of the James became the garden of the South. 
The splendid homes of cultured and influential planters, whose 
negroes were uncountable, were famous for storied hospitality in a 
period of political and social sunshine, but the clouds of adversity 
grayed the Virginia horizon when the Erie canal was finished and 
western bread-stuffs filled the seaboard markets. The storm burst in 
1861 and then another chapter, the greatest in the eventful annals of the 
"River of History" was written. The ivy clambered unhindered 



over stately portals ; the tempest of warfare swept across this pleasant 
sceue and left it desolate. This book is the story of a revival. 

The two cities of the James, Richmond and Norfolk, once pro- 
vincial towns, have become objective points of great railway systems 
and numerous steamship lines, these being both the cause and effect 
of a ratio of prosperity far in advance of their ante bellum conditions, 
and which is but in its inceptive stage. A genial climate and a good 
harbor have made Norfolk the packing-house of the kitchen garden 
of every Northern market. Lumber, early fruits and vegetables, corn, 
hay, and even wheat, not to mention fish and oysters, are the triljute 
of the tide- water counties of Princess Anne, Norfolk, Nansemond, Isle 
of Wight, Elizabeth City, Warwick, Surry, James City, Charles City, 
Prince George and Chesterfield. 







STEAMER AKIEL. 



Richmond has grown great in iron, tobacco, flour-milling, wood- 
working, and a great variety of other industries. Her suburbs extend 
beyond many of the old fortifications, and while retaining zealously 
the social characteristics of bygone days she has kept in line with any 
city of the South in every point of material progress. 

For many years a single steamboat, the staunch old Ariei<, has 
maintained a regular tri-weekly route between Richmond and the 
ports upon Hampton Roads. From her decks tens of thousands of old 
soldiers of both armies have looked again upon the scenes of battle 



and march in which they once participated. Numerous tourists 
hibernating to the resorts of Old Point Comfort, Virginia Beach and 
the far South have gone or returned by this pleasant voyage of a 
da}^ while local travel and freightage has depended upon the Ariel 
for transit at nearly thirty landings along the river. 

Recently the Virginia Navigation Company, owners of the Ariel, 
was reorganized. Plenty of capital was enlisted and the splendid new 
steamer Pocahontas, a veritable princess of the river, was built and 
placed in service. The increase in first-class and local travel was 
large and immediate, and it is the purpose of this book to not only 
inform the traveler already upon the decks of the swift Pocahontas 
regarding the crowding historic miles, the enchanting scenery and the 
renewed prosperity along its shores, but, as well, to tempt the great 
numbers of those who have ' ' always wanted to see the James ' ' to 
carry the half-formed resolution into effect. They are offered a tour 
unrivaled in thrilling historic interest, comfort and variety by any 
similar journey in America. 

The James River gathers its crystal waters in many secluded 
valleys indenting the eastward slope of the Alleghany Mountains, 
among the forest-bound western counties of Virginia, and winding 
through hundreds of picturesque miles, now sleeping in murky 
pools, famous for the ganiey bass, and then pouring, in a hurrying 
tempest of foam, through rocky defiles, it finally becomes the servant 
of commerce at Richmond. Here the last of the rapids disturb the 
course of the stream, endowing Richmond's factories with abundant, 
but only partially employed, water power, and then the river and the 
tides of the sea are merged. Here begins our story. 

RICHnOND, 
The capital city by the James, presents to the eye of the new comer 
from whatever direction of approach, a most pleasing appearance. 
Its central feature is the dignified Capitol building, upon the brow 
of the highland which slopes downward thence to the swift river, 
covered with a wide expanse of commercial streets and substantial 
public, business and private buildings. The hotels are all in the 
immediate vicinity of the historic Capitol and its beautiful green 
square, which is the glory of the city. The new State Library, now 
approaching completion, rises to the left or east of the Capitol, and 
behind it is the costly new City Hall. 




Washington's monument and capitol building, Richmond. 



THE OLD CAPITOL BUILDING. 

The corner-stone for the State Capitol of Virginia was laid in 1785. 
In the rotunda stands Houdon's statue of Washington, which is 
regarded as one of the most iaiihivX coiuiteifcit preseutmejits oi W\& 
" Father of our Country " in existence. Houdon's bust of Lafayette 
is near the statue. The Senate chamber was used during the Civil War 
by the Confederate House of Representatives. This room, the hall 
of the House of Delegates opposite, and the rotunda gallery, contain 
numerous paintings and portraits of great historical value. 

The Land Office contains the oldest State records in America, being 
continuous from 1620. The State Library contains 40,000 volumes, 
which will soon be removed to the new building. Visitors are 
admitted to the roof, which commands a grand view of the scene of 
many conflicts. 

The grounds are adorned by an imposing equestrian statue of 
Washington, by Crawford, with the six figures of Patrick Henry, 
Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Thos. Nelson, Jr., John INIarshall 
and Andrew Lewis grouped below. It was completed since the war. 
Statues of Henry Clay and T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson are near by. 

6 



NEW STATE LIBRARY. 

Th3 beautiful building destined to contain the wealth of volumes 
belonging to the State of Virginia, long stored in the Old Capitol, is 
as yet incomplete, but promises to add another to the many modern 
attractions of the city. It faces the Capitol, from which it is separated 
by a grassy interval only. 




NEW CITY HALL AND CAPITOL SQUARE, KICHMOND. 



NEW CITY HALL. 

The most costly structure in Richmond is the fine City Hall upon 
Broad Street, opposite the Capitol. It has but just been completed. 

MANY RECENT ARCHITECTURAL ADDITIONS. 

The architects of Richmond are to be credited with a fine array of 
large and attractive buildings, as well as a pleasing reform in the art 



of house-building. The Chamber of Commerce, Planters' Bank, Y. M. 
C. A. Hall, Masonic Temple, Times Building, Union Passenger Station, 
and numerous great factories are in evidence, as well as many blocks 
of beautiful residences along Franklin and other fashionable streets. 

THE HISTORICAL ROUND. 

Few strangers in town with a few hours of leisure forego the 
carriage tour to see the carefully preserved historical landmarks with 
which the heavy hand of war endowed Richmond. These maj' be 
briefly summarized as follows : Jeff Davis Mansion, or " White House 
of the Confederacy," site of Libby Prison, " Castle Thunder," Libby 
Hill and new Confederate Soldiers' monument, Oakwood Cemetery, 
containing graves of 16,000 Confederates, Gamble's Hill, overlooking 
Belle Isle, once a prison camp for hapless Federal captives, the 
Tredegar Iron Works, and the bridges spanning the James ; Holly- 
wood Cemetery, wherein an impressive stone pyramid rises 

among the graves of 11,000 Con- 
federates and where are buried 
the Confederate Generals, A. 
P. Hill, Geo. E. Pickett, Wm. 
Smith, J. E. B. Stuart, Com- 
modore Maury and many fam- 
ous men who died in earlier 
days, including Presidents INIon- 
roe, Tyler, and Jefferson Davis. 
There is also to be seen the lofty 
monument bearing the eques- 
trian figure of Gen. Robt.E. Lee, 
the Hill statue upon the Hermi- 
tage road, and Wickham statue 
in INIonroe Park, the Richmond 
Howitzer's monument and the 
Stonewall Jackson monument. 

ANTE=BELLUM 
RELICS. 

' "^ These include the Richmond 

POWHATAN'S GRAVE, NEAR RICHMOND. thcatrc, St. Johu's church, 




"Washington Headquarters," old bell tower in the Capitol grounds, 
and the reputed grave of Powhatan. 

DRIVES TO BATTLEFIELDS. 

Carriages will make special trips to any of the following fields : 
Yellow Tavern, 4 miles; Median icsville, 5'^ miles; Cold Harbor, 
10 miles ; Gaines' Mill, 8 miles ; Fair Oaks and Seven Pines, 8}4 
miles. The latter, as well as White Oak Swamp, may be reached by 
rail. 

Note. — For the visitor in and around the city, the concise " Guide to Richmond 
and the Battlefields," bj' Mr. W. D. Chesterman, editor of the Richmond Dispatch, 
and to which the author of this book is indebted for much information, is heartily 
recommended. 

POPULATION AND PROSPERITY. 

For Richmond and her suburbs, including Manchester across the 
river, a population is claimed of 115,000, of which rather more than 
two-thirds are whites. 

About one thousand manufacturing concerns employ 21,350 hands 
who earn wages annually amounting to about |8, 500,000, and which 
employ a capital of ^17,000,000 with a product of ^35, 000,000. The 
jobbing trade amounts to 136,000,000. The sales of leaf tobacco are 
about $9,000,000, and the value of manufactured tobacco exceeds 
|;r2, 000,000. Iron mantifacturas, including locomotives, marine 
engines, carriages and agricultural implements, are only second to 
tobacco in point of magnitude. Lumber, flour, fertilizers are large 
items. The grocery and provision trade aggregates about $20,000,000, 
and cotton figures to ^1,500,000.'^ 

The tax valuations of Richmond and Manchester are $70,500,000. 

The connections of the Virginia Navigation Company at Richmond, 
are elsewhere given in detail. 

Passengers arriving in the afternoon who may wish to spend the 
night upon board of the steamer Pocahontas (alternate nights only) 
will be provided with staterooms and meals. The wharf at Rocketts 
is reached by electric car or carriage. It is near the foot of Libby 
Hill, at the head of navigation, eastern end of the city. 

* Reports of Richmond Chamber of Commerce. 




STEAMER I'OCAHONTAS AVPROACHING RICHMOND. 



THE PALACE STEAMER POCAHONTAS. 

No steam vessel so entirely suited to first-class travel in points of 
elegance, speed, safety and comfort in all weathers, as the new Poca- 
hontas, has ever before been seen in southern waters. 

The Pocahontas was built at Wilmington, Del., and embodies many 

new and artistic features. 
She cost ^150,000. The 
hull is of steel, length over 
all 204 ft. , breadth of beam 
57 ft., depth of hold 10 ft. 
Speed twenty miles per 
hour. 

Upon the main deck in 
addition to the freight and 
l)aggage space forwards, are 
the social hall and separate 
parlor saloons for lady pas- 
sengers and servants re- 
spectively. The purser's 
office and mail agent's room 
are also upon this deck. 
The large dining-room be- 
LAUNCH OF THE POCAHONTAS. ^ow is fumishcd iu cxquis- 




ite taste, and the menu equals in quality and variety that of the 
best hotels. 

The promenade deck is open fore and aft, the enclosed portion 
forming large elegantly furnished saloons finished in ivory and gold, 
to which is added during the winter season, a roomy sun parlor cov- 
ering a portion of the forward deck and giving a protective outlook 
upon either side and in front. A range of staterooms, large and richly 
furnished, extends upon either side. Private card-rooms, suggestive 
of the coz}' comfort in a palace car smoking compartment, are also a 
part of the conveniences which will win the praise of many travelers. 
Upon either side of the grand stairway are pretty semi-circular private 
parlors, draped with silk curtains. 

The central feature of the steamer is the large and costly electric 
orchestrion, upon which the choicest selections of popular composers 
is performed during the trip, with the excellence and eflfect of a band 
of thirty pieces. 



KT 




HIP 


HlM 




^m^^^ 


^■1 




i 


^^1 


mW f 1 K^, 1 


^M 


^' 


^^ I'^SlBfl^^Ht 


^ /I 


^^^^^Km -'^ '^ 


~^~^^^^^B^^^b>''''^4h ^^ 


■}:\ ; 


^^^^^^^I^H^Ii 


[iii,k^|A 




K^^HH^I 


Ui^^lHHHyi^HlllBiSk^:^ 


^..f^^WBk 



PRIVATE PARLOR, STEAMER POCAHONTAS. 



The motive machinery of the steamer is of the highest class, and 
she is heated throughout with steam and lighted by electricity. 



12 



The hurricane deck is open to passengers, where plenty of seating 
room is provided. An electric search light apparatus crowns the pilot 
house. 

A PAGE FOR THE OLD SOLDIER. 



WAR'S DREAD ARITHMETIC. 

The estimated cost of the Civil 
War to the Federal treasury was 
|5, GOO, coo, coo. The total number 
of Union troops and sailors in the 
service was 2,778,304, of which the 
naval force was 105,963. Those 
who were killed or died of wounds 
numbered 359,528 in the army and 
4,588 in the navy. The Union 
forces were composed of men from 
38 States and Territories and the 
District of Columbia. 

The four States of New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois 
furnished about one-half the total 
number of volunteers. 

Delaware furnished the largest 
number of men in proportion to her 
population. The average age of 
the enlisted men was 25 years. 
The Union armies included a total 
of 2,047 regiments of all arms. 

The total number of Confederate 
soldiers is estimated to have been 

about 700,000 men, and the death rate from battle and sickness is 
believed to have been more than double that of the Federal 
armies. 

Two thousand two hundred and sixty-one battles, engagements and 
skirmishes occurred during the w^ar. 

In the region around Richmond, which was involved in the long 
campaigns against the city, more than 400 contests took place. 




UPON THE STAIRWAY, STEAMER POCAHONTAS. 



13 



The largest army assembled by the Confederates at any time was 
94,138 men iu the "Seven Days' Battles" near Richmond, in which 
they met the largest Union force, which numbered 118,769. 

In hundreds of battles the valor of the troops upon both sides won 
the admiration of the nations of the whole world. 



niLE=ST0NE5 OF TlflE. 

1524. James River explored by Lucas Vasquez d'Ayllon. 

1526, Ayllon obtained a charter for colonizing the James River 
from Charles V., of Spain, and locates a town called San Miguel, near 
the site of Jamestown. 

1584. First expedition of Walter Raleigh lands upon the coast 
near Hatteras, and names the region "Virginia," in honor of the 
virgin Queen of England, Elizabeth. Walter Raleigh knighted. 

1585. Sir Walter Raleigh's colony iu seven ships arrived upon 
the present coast of North Carolina. 

1586. The colony is visitad by the fleet of Sir Francis Drake. 
15S7. Raleigh sends a third colony to Roanoke Island, which was 

followed by a massacre of the colonists by Indians under 
Powhatan. 

i6o5. Grant of patent to the Virginia companies at London. 

1607. First English settlement in America made upon the James 
River, at Jamestown. Captain John Smith saved from execution by 
Pocahontas. 

1608. Jamestown colony greatly reduced by death from feverb 
and Indians. 

1609. Expedition under Sir Thos. Gates reached Jamestown. 

1610. Expedition of Lord De la Ware arrived at Jamestown. 
i5ii. Arrival of Sir Thomas Dale. Settlement of the towns of 

Henrico, near the present Dutch Gap canal, and Bermuda city. 

1616. Princess Pocahontas arrived in London as the wife of John 
Rolfe, the first Virginian tobacco planter. 

1 6 19. Governorship of Sir George Yeardley upon the James River. 
Arrival of one hundred young women for wives. First American 
Legislature assembled in the church at Jamestown. 

1622. Governorship of Sir F/ancis Wyatt. Massacre of about 350 
settlers by Indians. 

14 



1624. Dissolution of the Virginia Company in London by James I. 

1629. The Duke of Norfolk proposed a settlement upon the south- 
ern shore of the James River. 

1633. Arrival of the Catholic colony of Lord Baltimore at the 
Capes of the Chesapeake en route to found Baltimore city. 

1642. Sir William Berkeley arrived at Jamestown as Governor of 
the Colony of Virginia. 

1644. Massacre of colonists by Indians. 

1647. The colony upon the James largely increased by Cavaliers, 
fugitive from England. 

1652. Surrendar of Jamestown to the English fleet and Cromwel- 
lian Commissioner. 

1660. Decline of Puritanism in Virginia. 

1673. Virginia granted by the crown to the Earl of Arlington and 
Lord Culpepper. 

Bacon's Re- 



1676. 

bellion. Burning of 
Jamestown. 

16S0. Arrival of 
Lord Culpepper as 
Governor of Virginia. 





THE POCAHONTAS MEETING AN OID 
DOMINION LINE STEAMER. 



1692. Establishment of William 
and Mary College. 

1705. Williamsburg founded as the 
colonial capital. 

1710. Col. Alexander Spottswood 
became Governor of the Colony. 



15 



1736. First Virginian newspaper published weekly by William 
Parks, at Williamsburg. Norfolk incorporated. 

1737. Col. W^m. Byrd laid out the town of Richmond at the Falls 
of the James River. 

1765. Patrick Henry introduced the famous resolutions into the 
Virginia Legislature. 

1779. Richmond made the capital of Virginia. 

1781. Benedict Arnold, with 900 British soldiers captured Rich- 
mond. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. 

1S19. Work commenced on Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort. 

1S61-65. Civil War. 

DOWN THE RIVER. 

History begins to unroll her time-stained scroll when the hawsers 
of the Pocahontas are cast from the wharf She beckons the traveler 
astern for a backward look along the slopes of Richmond, glowing in 
the morning sunshine. 

Slowly she swings down the contracted stream past busy work- 
shops crowding the verge of the shore, with a glimpse of ' ' Powhatan ' ' 
above, just where the groups of tall cedars stand, then passing the 
government rock-drills anchored over a granite reef, fragments of 
which half fill a muddy scow. Here were the sunken vessels and 
there the torpedoes lay to keep the Yankee gun boats out if they 




MONITOR FLEET. 
16 



should happen to steal past the watchful batteries at Drewry's Bluff. 
These monsters, once such dread ogres, now slumber peacefully in 
the stream, seven of them, on the very best terms with Richmond and 
the deserted ramparts hidden in the wildwood all around them. 

For many years several of the veteran monitors, among them the 
Manhattan, Mahopac, Lehigh, Catskill, Wyandotte, and Canonicus 
have been anchored in the James River, at first at City Point, but now, 
in order to preserve the hulls from fouling, they are kept in fresh water. 
Ranged along the southern bank, with a pleasant background of 
verdure to relieve the color of awnings and flags, they present an 
attractive picture. Upon the north shore near the monitors, is 




WARWICK PARK, devoted to local excursions via the steamers 
of the Virginia Navigation Company. A large dancing pavilion and 
lunch hall is half hidden in the midst of plentiful shade. 

The general government has expended large sums upon this por- 
tion of the river in the work of deepening the channel wluch is now 
rather more than i8 feet and will be increased in time to 21 feet. In 
this effort a series of jetties have been built at right angles to the 
shore line. Opposite jetty No. loi, not far inland, upon Falling Creek, 

17 



once stood the first iron foundry in the new world, the hamlet being 
called "Anipthill." Here it is said was also located the first mill to 
produce flour for export to South America. Just below "Anipthill, " at 
a copse of trees upon the hillside, occurred in the year 1622, the mas- 
sacre of about 250 English settlers by Indians. The great chief, 
Powhatan, whose daughter had married an English colonist and 
adopted, with the self-abnegation of a Ruth, the ways of his people, 
had gone to the happy hunting grounds. His younger brother, 
Opechananough, had succeeded to his great authority. Cherishing a 
long-seated hatred of the stranger whites, he carried into partial 
effect upon March 22d, of that year, a scheme to end the English 
aggression upon the James River. His victims were principally found 
at the outposts of the parent colony of Jamestown, located at Anipt- 
hill, Henrico upon Farrars Island, near the present Dutch Gap 
Canal, and Bermuda Hundred, near the mouth of the Appomattox 
River. News of the slaughter reached Jamestown by escaping set- 
tlers in time to prepare an effective defense. 

The estate of Wilton is upon the north shore opposite this tragic 
site, and Wilton Creek, where the gunboats were anchored, enters 
here. 

DREWRY'S BLUFF. 

About eight miles below Richmond is still to be seen the outline 
of the famous fort at Drewry's Bluff. It occupies the crest of an 
abrupt elevation and commands a considerable reach of the stream 
below. 

The place was named in honor of Major A. H. Drewry, who com- 
manded one of the batteries of heavy artillery raised for the defense 
of Richmond, in April, 1S62. When it became evident that Norfolk 
would soon be evacuated by the Confederates and the capital thus 
exposed to Federal attack by means of their gunboats. Major Drewry 
made application to the authorities at Richmond for the removal of 
his command to such a point upon the river as might be selected for 
its obstruction and the erection of a fort for this purpose. This was 
readily granted, and Major Rives of the engineers' department was 
detailed to select a site. At first it was thought that Howlett's Blufi" 
at the head of the horse-shoe formed by a wide detour of the river 
further down the stream would be the most advantageous place on 

18 



account of the greater elevation and more uniform depth of water, 
as well as the abundance of timber to l)e had upon either bank for 
the obstructions, but it soon occurred to Major Rives that the enemy 
might readily cut a canal through the narrow neck at Dutch Gap, 
and thus neutralize all of the laborious defense, and expose the city 
to almost certain capture. As a result Drewry's Bluff was fixed upon, 
and the command of Major Drewry was sent hither. This detach- 
ment was composed mainly of farmers from the county of Chester- 
field, many of whom were beyond the age of conscription. These 
soldiers, both by personal labor and the use of their teams, rendered 
valuable aid to Lieutenant Mason, who liad been assigned as engineer 
to the completion of the fort and th^ obstructions, and later on the 
Confederate Government gave more active aid, and early in May, 
when the situation had become more alarming in Richmond, the 
citizens furnished material help in supplying rock to fill in the 
obstructions. 

Upon the I3tli of May, when Norfolk had been captured by the 
Federal forces, the Union fleet under command of Lieut. Rogers, was 
seen to anchor about two miles below at the wharf of Mr. R. A. 
Willis, where it remained two days, doubtless to ascertain the location 
of the fort and the strength of its garrison. Upon the morning of the 
I5tli they moved, and were allowed to take position without molesta- 
tion. The flag-ship Galena and the original Monitor came abreast 
and anchored about five hundred yards below the fort, the iron-clads 
Naugatuck, Aroostook, Port Royal and other armed vessels locating 
several hundred yards below them. About seven o'clock, when all 
was ready, the attack was made by the fleet with about twenty guns, 
and promptly answered from the fort in which were two Columbiads 
of eight inch calibre and one often inches, and the fight continued 
for several hours, until an eight inch gun which had been casemated 
outside of the fort was brought into use, when at half-past eleven the 
ships weighed anchor and retired down stream, much to the joy of 
the Confederates in the fort, who thus gained the thanks of the people 
of Richmond and the special recognition of Congress. Subsequently 
it was made a naval post and became a very Gibraltar in streno-th, 
with Commodore Lee in conmiand, but no further attempt was made 
during the war to reduce this important work. For the facts in this 
case the writer is indebted to the aged Major Drewry, who still lives, 

19 



and at Westover, his beautiful estate dispenses genuine old-fashioned 
Virginia hospitality. 




OI.E VIRGIXNY HOME. 



CHAFFIN'S BLUFF, nearly opposite Drewry's Bluff, is covered 
with redoubts and rifle pits now hidden among the wild scrub growth 
of nearly thirty years. 

Fort Harrison and Fort Gilmer (Confederate) are in sight upon 
Chaffin's Bluff. The former was stormed upon September 29, 1864, 
by two corps of Butler's army, chiefly blacks, but the latter was suc- 
cessfully defended. 

Between the yellow bluffs and dense ramparts of verdure there are 
glimpses of prosperous looking farms, becoming more numerous as 
the steamer proceeds. 

DUTCH GAP CANAL. 

The river winds in great loops among the low hills ; this character- 
istic and the necessity of avoiding certain heavy batteries at Howletts 
having led General Butler to attempt the Yankee trick of digging a 
cut-off at a point which would have shortened the stream about 7 miles. 




DUTCH GAP. 



The work v/as pushed by swarming sohliers night and da}', but was 
not completed at the time. In 1S71-2 engineers deepened it to its 
present practicable condition. 

Farrar's Island is formed by 
this canal, and here was once 
the settlement of Henrico, 
commenced in 161 1 by Sir 
Thomas Gates and 350 men 
from Jamestown, of which 
one Ralph Hamor, Secretary 
of the Colony, wrote : 

' ' There is in this town three 
streets of well framed houses, 

a hansom church, and a foundation of a more stately one laid, of 
brick, in length a hundred foote, and fifty foote wide, besides store- 
houses, watch-houses, and such like ; there are also on the verge of 
the river five block houses, with centinelles for the towne's security." 
Henrico was chosen as the site for the Colonial College about 1619, 
and money was raised in England for the purpose. Mr. George Thorp, 
who was engaged here in superintending the preliminary work, was 
one of the numerous victims of the Indian Massacre which occurred 
in 1622 and from which the promising little community never 
recovered. 

Bishop Meade, who is held to have been accurate authority upon 
early Virginia aff"airs, attributes the name of Dutch Gap to the indi- 
cations of an effort by Dutch settlers to shorten the channel at this 
point. 




J^^h^^fe^^^fcc^^ 




A^ 



.i^^^^^^.^^^^^^^< 



VARINA OR AIKIN'S LANDINa. 

The name of this point upon the north shore was once famiUar to 
Northern readers of war news, as a flag of truce rendezvous for the 
exchange of prisoners. Here lived Mrs. Rolfe, nee Pocahontas, after 
her marriage. The red brick house was the meeting point for officers 
of the Federal and Confederate armies. 

Varina was one of the great properties of the Randolph family, and 
one of the latest hold by them. The name was derived from Varina 
in Spain, famous for its tobacco. 

The name of Randolph is among the most conspicuous and glorious 
in the annals of not only the State of Virginia but of the country at 
large, 

William Randolph, of Turkey Island, was the first of the family 
in America. He was a member of the Council and Colonial Treasurer. 
Among his descendants who achieved fame in public affairs were 
Peyton Randolph, President o'l the First Congress, held at Phila- 
delphia ; Beverley Randolph, Governor of Virginia ; John Randolph, 




TUCKAHOE. 

22 




MONTPELIER — HOME OF PRESIDENT MADISON. 



Varina, Curls, Bremo, 



Member of Congress and Minister to Russia, and Edmund Randolph, 
Secretary of State of the United States and Governor of Virginia. 

The Randolph estates in Virginia, along the James River, were 
Tuckahoe, Dungeness, Chatsworth, Wilton, 
and Turkey Island. 

DEEP BOTTOM. 

A fishing hamlet indicates the 
spot in front of which beneath the 
swirling waters a Federal gunboat 
lies, destroyed with a loss of forty- 
five men, by a torpedo, in 1864. 

MEADOWVILLE, the first reg 
ular landing made by the steamer, 
is upon a broad area of land almost 
enclosed by the river rising pleas- 
antly in the background but low and level in front, this rich alluvial 
portion being now thoroughly reclaimed by systematic d3'king, 




FISHING BOAT. 



23 




under the direction of Mr. E. E. Barney, president of the steamboat 
company, who is largely engaged in agricultural development at several 
points upon the river, including Jamestown. 



CURL'S NECK. 

The property at this landing, as elsewhere stated, once belonged 
to the historic Randolph family. Now the steamer rounds Curl's Neck, 
touches at Presoue Islk, and entering Turkey Bend, brings into view 
upon a high clearing the historic house of INIalvern Hiix. It is just 
to the right of a large red-roofed barn. The battle of INIalvcrn Hill 
was one of the bloodiest of the Civil War. Turkey Island plantation 
was the home of General Pickett, 

24 



A NOTE UPON THR PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 

It may be acceptable to the reader to introduce, at this point, an 
outline of the series of events which culminated in the battle of 
Malvern Hill, as a part of McClellan's Campaign, ending so ingloriously 
in the embarkation of his splendid army from Harrison's Landing, and 
which in its entirety has been called the *' Peninsular Campaign." 

About the middle of March, 1862, General McClellan notified his 
army that the advance into the enemy's territory was to begin. The 
Federal troops from this time until they had been conducted across 
the Chickahominy River, five months later, were constantly upon the 
move, and were sul^jected to the deadly miasma of the great swamps 
of this almost uninhabited region. 

Yorktown was taken after deliberate siege. Then followed a series 
of fierce battles in the vicinity of Richmond, which bear the names of 
"Williamsburg," May 4th; "Hanover Court House," May 27th, 
"Seven Pines" or "Fair Oaks," May 31st. Then, after much and 
constant desultory fighting, came the engagements of " Beaver Dam 
Creek " or " Mechanicsville," June 26th ; " Cold Harbor" or " Gaines' 
Mills," June 27th, "Charles City Court House," June 30th, and each 
day for a week the two armies locked horns, giving rise to the name of 
the ' 'Seven Days' Fight, " by which this sanguinary group of contests is 
known among the veterans. The largest force gathered at any time in 
the Federal army is shown upon the Commander's report, June 14th, 
when the number was given at 158,838 menof which 115,152 combatants 
were present for duty; the Confederate force is approximated at 100,000. 

Savage's Station and Frazier's Farm were fought, and finally upon 
June 29th, at Malvern Hill, were gathered 90,000 F'ederal troops face 
to face with about 50,000 Confederates, where upon July ist, the Con- 
federates assaulted a tremendous array of Union batteries, which tore 
their brigades into shreds, and despite the fact that the Union position 
remained untaken, the following morning found the Commanding 
General actively engaged in hurrying his great force upon a retreat 
to the banks of the James River, thus effecting the much derided 
"change of base" to Harrison's Landing, where he proceeded to make 
himself comfortable. 

The swamps and woods of the Peninsula were filled with the dead 
of both contestants, and there was mourning in the homes of the 
North and South alike. 

25 



The niiniber of killed, wounded and missing in the campaign was, 
irrespective of the heavy death-rate from sickness, of almost unex- 
ampled magnitude upon both sides. The following are the official 

figures of the Federal losses. 

Killed. Wouuded. Captured. Miss'g. 

Mav 5, Williamsburg 456 1,410 373 2,239 

May 7, West Point 48 no 28 186 

May 27, Hanover Court House ... 62 223 70 355 

May 31, Fair Oaks 790 3,594 647 5,031 

June 26, Mechanicsville 49 207 105 361 

June 27, Gaines' Mills 894 3,107 2,836 6.837 

June 28, Golding's Farm 37 227 104 368 

June 29, Savage Station 80 412 1,098 1,590 

June 30, Glendale 210 1,513 1,130 2,853 

July I, Malvern Hill 397 2,092 725 3,214 

Total 23,034 

SEVEN DAYS' B\TTI.E, VIRGINIA — PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN, 1862. 

Killed 1,734 

Wounded 8,062 

Missing 6,053 

Total 15.849 

The substantial old house upon ^Malvern Hill was left practically 
unharmed by the fight around it. It was built by a French family 
and owned at the time of the battle by B. F. Dew. Near by is an 
earthwork said to have been built by Washington during the War of 
the Revolution. 

SHIRLEY. 

This estate is one of the oldest upon the river. It is claimed that 
the residence was built in 1642. It is the birthplace of Annie Carter, 
of the prominent colonial family of that name, who married. " Light 
Horse Harry Lee" of the Revolution, and who was the mother of 
General Robert E. Lee. 

BERMUDA HUNDRED. 

This name, as applied to the settlement near the mouth of the 
Appomattox River, greatly mystified Northern readers of a generation 
ago, when, as the base of General B. F. Butler's operations it began 
to figure largely in the daily newspaper war despatches. This outpost 
of Jamestown was largely settled by persons who had been ship- 

26 



wrecked on the P.emuulas and the old colonial subdivision of villages 
by which each hundred colonists were placed under the authority of 
a captain, is still preserved in Virginia nomenclature. The dingy 
village of to-day carries little suggestion of the energy of its founders 
or of the vast activity here in 1864, the only marks of which are 




numerous decaying logs projecting from the water where the Govern- 
ment wharves once stood. 



CITY POINT. 

From this landing a railroad extends nine miles to Petersburg, 
from which no doubt the somewdiat ambitious name is derived. Trains 
connect with the steamers both up and down the river. The 

27 




SHIRLEY PARLOR. 



village, like Bermuda Hundred, is more picturesque than progressive, 
although there is an occasional modern house within the view, prettily 
environed in its verdure. A fine old mansion upon the promontory' 
at the meeting of the waters of the Appomattox and James rivers, 
was used by General Grant as headquarters during the operations 
around Petersburg. The little log structure which was built for his 
office was removed after the war to Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. 
The homestead is the property of Major Epps. 



PETERSBURG. 

The historical student or interested traveler may well spend a day 
at Petersburg, which is invested with an interest in connection with the 
war only second to that of Richmond. The city itself has some quaint 
features, which have been preserved despite the changes of many 
prosperous years, but the centre of interest is in the vicinity of the 
" Mine," a great crater of red subsoil still marking the scene of one 
of the most thrilling affairs of the war, in the course of which a 

28 



Confederate fort was blown into the air by means of a tunnel 
excavated secretly by a regiment of Pennsylvania miners. 

The charge following the awful explosion resulted in fearful 
slaughter of the Union assailants, due to the incapacity of the officer 
in immediate command. This badly managed affair occurred upon 
July 30, 1864. Petersburg was abandoned by the Confederate forces 
onlv after the fall of Richmond eight months later. One week after 
this came Appomattox, the number surrendering at that point being 




CITY POINT. 



28,805, aiid. thus virtually ended the 
modern wars. 



greatest and most destructive of 



FROn WAR TO PEACE. 

Not far from the fateful ravine which separated the contending 
forces in front of the '* crater" at Petersburg, still stands the ruin of 
the colonial Blandford church, dating from 1735. Under the shadow 
of its walls are the sculptured tombs of cavaliers and olden families, 
who rested undisturbed, though the fight and carnage raged all around 

29 




MAJ( 



iPl'S HOUSE, CITY POINT. 



them. The following verses were written many years ago upon the 
walls of the old church. 

Thou art cnnnbliiig to the dust, old pile 

Thou art hasteniug: to thy fall. 
And 'round thee in thy loneliness 

Clings the ivy to the wall. 
The worshipers are scaitered now 

Who met before thy shrine. 
And silence reigns where anthems rose 

In days of Old L,ang Syue. 

And sadly sighs the wandering winds 

Where oft, in years gone by, 
Pravers rose from many hearts to Him, 

The highest of tlie high ; 
The tramp of many a heavy foot 

That sought thy aisles is o'er 
And many a weary heart around 

Is still forever more. 

How doth ambition's hope take wing, 

How droops the spirit new. 
We hear the distant city'.'^ din, 

The dead are mute below ; 



30 




GRANT S HEADQUAKTKRS, CITY POINT. 



The sun which shoue upon their paths 

And gilds their loneU' graves, 
The zephyrs which once fanned their brows, 

The grass above them waves. 



Oh ! could we call the many back, 

Who've gathered here in" vain, 
Who've careless roved where we do now, 

Who'll never meet again ; 
How would our every souls be stirred 

To meet the earnest gaze 
Of the lovely and the beautiful, 

The lights of other days. 

A recent article in the Richmond Dispatch states that the lines 
were written by Miss Eliza J^. Hening, of Richmond, about the year 
1820. 

BERKELEY AND WESTOVER. 

Again upon the deck of the handsome Pocahontas ^^ are approach- 
ing Berkeley and Westover, two grand old estates upon the northern 
shore of the broadening river. The new wharf is about midway 

31 



between the manor-houses. Berkeley is the natal-place of the first 
President Harrison, and is still in the Harrison family, of which 
ex-President Benjamin Harrison is a member. 

Berkeley is better known to the Northern soldiers and people as 
Harrison's Landing, which was long the headquarters of General 
McClellan after his retreat from Malvern Hill. At that time there 
were not less than six hundred war vessels and transports anchored 
in the river near by, and the river shore for miles was covered with 
the camps of the soldiers. 




BLANDFOKD CHURCH, PETERSBURG. 



Harrison's Landing was later used as a place for the exchange of 
prisoners. 

Westover has been made famous by frequent writers and errant 
artists. The reader to whom the Century Magazine of June, 1S91, is 

32 




DIMXG ROOM— STEAMER POCAHONTAS. 



accessible, will find therein a most entertaining and well illustrated 
chapter regarding this most hospitable and well-kept memento of a 
bygone era. 

Westover was originally the property of Sir John Panlet, by whom 
it was transferred to two brothers named Bland, from whom, in turn, 
it was acquired by Col. William Byrd, of Belvidere, a place now 
known as Gamble's Hill, one of Richmond's parks overlooking the 
James River. The son of the original American colonist of this 
ancient English family, laid out the town of Richmond near his 
father's wilderness estate. Col. William Byrd the second built upon 
his lands at Westover a most excellent house, in 1737, which is a 
beautiful example of the colonial style, as our illustration fully 
indicates. Westover is rich in historic reminiscence. Thirty-three 
persons perished here in the massacre of 1622. During the revolution 

33 



the traitor Arnold came here with his British troops upon the way to 
Richmond, and Cornwallis' raiding cavalry stabled their horses in its 



X 




WESTOVEK GATE. 



rooms. iJurin*;^ the Civil War it was occupied by General Pope and 
other Union officers. The story of the beautiful Evelyn Byrd, whose 
tomb is here, is among the most pathetic of Virginia's crowded annals 
of " knightly men and ladyes faire," who were oft guests of "Will 
Bytd, Gentleman," the Black Swan, who sleeps in his canopied tomb 
close by his stately homestead. 

Westover has been for the past thirty years the property of Major 
A. H. Drewry. 

WINDMILL POINT 

Is indicated upon the southern shore of the river by a white light- 
house. Here and at Fort Powhatan, a few miles below, two pontoon 
bridges were laid, and in two days 130,000 Federal troops crossed to 
invest Petersburg. 

WILLCOX LANDING 

Is a fishery village. In the season large numbers of black river-men 
are busy with seines, the principal catches being shad and sturgeon, 

35 



The latter are very plentiful, and their immense carcasses are shipped 
to market from the landin<^s all along the river. Sturgeon roe is sent 
in half barrels to New York whence it is repacked to Russia to 
be made into caviare. This industry lends a picturesque quality 
to the frequent landings which usually project far out from a shore- 
line bordered by yellow reaches of sand beach where the batteaux 
of the fishers are drawn up and their netting hung to dry. 

Just below Willcox's Queen's creek enters the James, and upon its 
banks, but a little ride inland, is Charles City Court House, where a 
part of the "seven days fighting" occurred. 

WEYANOKE. 

Here we meet another name of historic flavor, and which has its 
gruesome tale of Indian massacre. The residence is of frame and is 
surrounded by a broad plantation. 




A NATIVK RIG. 



The passing traveler, observant of the varied onlookers thronging 
the rude wharves as the steamer comes and goes, may find much to 
interest and amuse. All of Kemble's types, in both white and black, 
are there, but one's admiration is provoked for the handsome planters, 
brown and athletic, often, it must be confessed, "Colonels" and 
" Majors " very likely by good right of service, and for the slim pretty 
Virginia girls who come down the winding roads from unseen domiciles, 

37 



for the mail, or to welcome school-ijirl friends to some Kutopia of Old 
Dominion hospitality. Everybody on board, except outside barbarians 
like the writer, knows the "Colonel" and the young ladies, wherefore 
there is a lively interchange ol pretty badinage, in the soft accent of 
the region, the sweetest English in all the world. 




WEYANOKE — RIVER FKONT. 

Building materials, new farm machinery, furniture and similar 
freight landed all along the river from the steamer proclaim present 
prosperity. 

Not far below Westover is located the property of Sherwood Forest, 
the birth place of John Tyler, tenth President of the United States. 
The house and outbuildings are of wood, but are still in good repair. 

FORT POWHATAN. 

Unlike a very large number of places in the United States bearing 
this warlike prefix, where no fort is in evidence and probably never 
existed. Fort Powdiatan is visible to the traveler in the form of a heavy 
stone wall from which a sandy beach slopes prettily down to the water 
and the nets of fishers, their boats and the litter of a small waterside 
community is strewn about. Long ago great trees grew above the 

39 



rocky escarpment; wild vines clamber along the stony front, the guns 
are gone or buried. The interior parade has been filled in with material 
from the bluff behind, and a small country store and usual post office 
proclaim the era of peace from the midst of the scene. Fort Powhatan 
played a part in the war of 1812 and was garrisoned by the Confeder- 
ates. What midnight alarms, what beating of drums to man the guns, 
what vigils of lonely sentries scanning the far away tides, and what 
assaults and defense have been known in and around Old Fort Pow- 
hatan, may be left to the fancy of the reader who gazes upon it com- 
fortably, while the purser is busy on the little wharf and the captain 
stands by to ring the starting bell. In its moss clad decadence it is a 




FORT POWHATAN. 



thing of delight to an artist, for whose especial vexation these plenti- 
ful bits of combined nature and history come into view and are left in 
the w^ake of the hurrying steamboat altogether too briefly. 

There is a record that, during the Civil War, a battery was built 
upon the bluff above the old fort, and was of much annoyance to the 
Federal gunboats. In July 1862 it was shelled by the Sebago. 

UPPER BRANDON. 

The two Brandons, are upon the opposite exposures of a long 
peninsula formed upon the southern shore of the river by a wide 
detour of the stream to the northward. Brandon proper, to which we 
shall presently come, after touching Oldfield, has its rich fundof rem- 

41 



iniscent detail fully set forth for the perusal of those who may care to 
read, but Upper Braudon with all its lovely nooks and shadows, 
rambles and outlooks, its suggestions of bountiful prosperity, rich 
hospitality, and colonial grandeur, has successfully eluded the gleaners 
of historic straws who have preceded the present writer, giving him 
no friendly hint from which to gild the moment of passing with 
truthful legends of courtly men and noble dames of the earl}' days. 
The able writer of the last guide book made hereabout gives the 
mystery up by retreating upon the statement: " It is a large and fine 
old plantation, the house is a handsome one and in good repair." 
Even the discriminating photographer, the best friend of the casual 
writer has, perhaps seen a "haviut" from Dancing Point, when he 
landed at Upper Brandon, and has retreated with unopened lens. 




STAIRCASE — STEAMER POCAHONTAS. 



42 



I 



^y*^_ 




BRANDON PAHLOR AND HALL, LOWER BRANDON. 



STURGEON POINT 

Suggests the fishery interest which in the season engages the atten- 
tion of a large number of men, both white and black, all along the 
river. Heavy catches of shad are sent to market and the lumbering 
stupid sturgeon, previously mentioned, who really doesn't care 
enough for the vanities of life to fight his way out of the nets, is 
caught in very considerable numbers. There is a brick-making indus- 
try at Sturgeon Point, and schooners loading with the product of the 
kilns, which are owned by the Old Dominion Brick and Tile Co. 

OLDFIELD. 

Here also is a brick-yard, the clay in this vicinity being of a highly 
excellent quality for producing good building brick. 

LOWER BRANDON. 

Here is one of the few fine old places in the South which still 
remain in the hands of the descendants of those who found them, 
Brandon is owned by the Harrison family. Its walls are enriched with 
paintings of knightly men and beautiful women. Nearly all of the 
Presidents of the United States have experienced its hospitality. Its 
environment is rich in romantic suggestion. 

SANDY POINT. 

Sandy Point is opposite Claremont. A lumbering and fishing 
villageis located here, and near by is Dancing Point, which has its 
uncanny traditions of ghostly terpsichoreans seen by the shivering 
darkies at midnight. 

Not far below Sandy Point the Chickahominy River enters the 
James. This stream leads through a portion of the peninsula of great 
historical interest. In New Kent county, in addition to the war his- 
tory of the neighborhood, stands the old church in which Washington 
was married. 

CLAREMONT. 

This great plantation once extended along the river, including 
12,500 acres, seven miles, and was owned by Major Wm. Allen. This 
wharf is the terminus of the James River division of the Atlantic & 
Danville Railway, connecting with the main line at Belfield, fifty-five 
miles distant. This is a shipping port of growing importance. 

The forest area of this portion of the State is a rich heritage, and 
the traffic in timber is large and growing. At Claremont a group of 

45 



large schooners is clustered around the wharves receiving cargoes of 
railroad ties and other products of the woods. 

The next stop is at Jamestown, and as a prelude to a sight of this 
famous spot, the following historical matter is here introduced : 




ST. PETER S CHURCH, NEW KENT COUNTY, IN WHICH WASHINGTON WAS MARRIED. 

A SPANISH EXPEDITION UPON THE JAHES. 

It is related by the painstaking and accurate historian, John Fisk, 
that in 1524, eighty-three years before the arrival of the English ex- 
pedition to colonize Virginia, Lucas Vasquez d'Ayllon came from 
Hispaniola and entering the James River with six hundred people and 
one hundred horses proceeded to secure a foothold. Two years later, 
having obtained a charter from Charles V., he began a town some- 
where near Jamestown Island which he called San Miguel, but which, 
upon the death of the leader and many of his people from fevers, was 
abandoned. The Spaniards brought with them negro slaves, thus in- 
augurating here the system of slave labor in America. 

46 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

THIS IS THE STORIED REGION OF JOHN SMITH AND THE 
PRINCESS POCAHONTAS. 

The affairs of Jamestown developed no more rugged character than 
that of Captain John vSmith, whose fame has been chiefly perpetuated 
by a single incident in a life unusually varied with strange adventure, 
even in the unsettled and hazardous age during which he lived. 

John Smith was the son of a Lincolnshire farmer, and was born in 
1579. At the age of 13 years his parents having died, he had become 
heir to a comfortable property, which he seemed to care but little for, 
inasnuich as he was bewitched with a desire for adventure by sea, but 
any sort ot hazard seems to have been to his liking, for at fifteen years 
he had enlisted as a soldier in the campaigns of the Low Countries. 
Eight years later he was back at his native place and essayed the life 
of a hermit, reading abstruse classics, and practicing in the saddle the 
sports of lance and ring. Then, again, he became a soldier, fighting 
against the Turks and having various lively or perhaps, more prop- 
erly, deadly adventures. There is a story of his capture in the East 
and sale into captivity, and of a great combat with three Turks, whose 
heads were afterward engraved on Smith's coat of arms. 

At twenty-five years he was again in England with the rank of 
captain, at which period the great question of colonization in America 
was occupying a place in the public mind. He had planned to go to 
South America, but instead, finally joined his fortunes with the ex- 
pedition of the Virginia Company, chartered by the crown for the pur- 
pose of colonization, traffic and christianization of the natives. 

The expedition left England with sealed orders and the names of 
those to whom authority was given were not to be revealed before the 
end of the voyage. Captain Newport was simply the navigator en- 
gaged to take the fleet across the ocean. Per consequence, the idle 
people, restless spirits many of them, presently became divided into 
cliques, and in these contentions for the control of matters Smith had 
an active hand. One hundred and fifty idle men, four months upon 
a sea vovage in three small ships, are capable of untold mischief. 
John Smith had more enemies than friends when Virginia was sighted, 
and the former, who had charged him with mutiny during the voyage, 
kept him from assuming the authority with which the sealed orders 
invested him, as a member of the Council. He was kept under arrest. 

47 




•"j:^^mm iiixrr 



m^W^m^tAT^ 



.J 



The site of Jamestown, now one of the most healthful locations in the 
valley of the James, was at the time of its selection, upon May 13, 
1607, as a place for a settlement, most unsuited for such a purpose. 

The Indians were full of fight and the military experience of Smith 
as well as his bravery was of much service to the colony. Upon re- 
turning from a trip to the Falls of the James with Captain Newport, 
Smith found that the settlement had been attacked by the savages 
and many, including most of the Council, wounded. 

New^port returned to England on June 22, 1607, leaving one 
hundred and five settlers at Jamestowni, with food for thirteen weeks. 
Within three months half of the colony had died of fever. Smith, 
who had finally become a member of the Council, and had inaugurated 
military regulations, worked with vigor in exploring, hunting and 
trading with the Indians for corn. There w^ere few healthy men left 
in the settlement. Wingfield, the president, was deposed in favor of 
Ratcliffe. The only hope left rested in the return of the ships. 
History more than hints at the practice of cannibalism in Jamestown 
in this trying time. The trip made by Smith up the Chickahominy 
River in December and which resulted, in his capture, was one of a 
series of desperate efforts to get food for the people yet remaining 
alive. He had wdth him twelve men. With two men and an Indian 
guide he left his main party and continued up the stream in a canoe. 
Several of his men were killed by the Indians but after capture he 
was taken to the villages of the nation and treated, according to his 
own printed story, with much consideration up to the time, when in 
the presence of King Powhatan he w^as seized preparatory to being 
killed with clubs, but rescued by the king's favorite daughter. 
Several versions of this event were printed in Ivondon, the chronicler 
of the period being doubtless quite as charmingly indifferent to 
mere facts as the talented journalist of to-day, and these w^ere so 
variant as to largely discredit the entire transaction. The American 
people wall not sooner give up this pleasant little morsel of history than 
they will consent to part with the precious hatchet, w^hich hacked the 
cherry tree, in the hands of the future Father of our Country. I,et no 
man rise up and deprive us of Pocahontas and the captive Smith ! 

A few days later John Smith was released and came back to 
Jamestowni, and found certain of the leaders engaged in a plot to take 
the pinnace and go back to England. This he frustrated. These 

49 



( 



men, in reprisal, condemned Smith to be hanged, but the opportune 
return of Newport saved him. To the miserable remnant of forty 
survivors, the ships brought one hundred and twenty recruits, with 
provisions, implements and seeds. 

In 1608 John Smith surveyed the Chesapeake and its tributary 
rivers, preparing a map which was remarkably correct, of the entire 
seaboard of Virginia, a copy of which can be seen on the boat. 

In that year, too, he was made president of the colony, his 
enemies having mostly returned to England. In September more 
men and supplies came, and also two women. Mistress Forrest and 
her maid Ann Burras, the latter soon finding a husband in John 
Lavdon. Smith's energies seemed to have never waned in his barter 
with the Indians, and his efforts to keep the colony together, where 
laziness, induced by malaria and hunger, went hand in hand. 

In May, 1609, a fleet sailed from England consisting of nine ships 
with five hundred men. Upon one of these, the Sea Adventure, the 
chiefs of the expedition, Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, 
took passage. Captain Newport, as Vice-Admiral, was the navigator. 
Ratclifif, Martin, and Archer, all opponents of the adventurer Smith, 
were also along. One of the ships of the fleet was the first sea-going 
vessel built in America, the Virginia, which had been constructed at 
the northern colony under George Pophani, at the mouth of the 
Kennebec river two years before. Seven of the ships arrived in 
safety, one was lost at sea, and the flag ship containing the notables 
was unheard of until the following Spring, when it was learned that 
the Sea Adventure had been wrecked upon the reefs of the Bermudas, 
the crew and passengers being cast ashore after several days of great 
peril and suffering, and where during the winter they had been busy 
in building two small vessels in which to continue the trip. It was 
doubtless the members of this portion of the expedition who afterward 
located at the place near the mouth of the Appomattox River, which 
was called the Bermuda Hundred. 

The career of Smith in Virginia was cut short by the explosion of 
a quantity of gunpowder in his boat while he was on a trip to the 
Falls of the James, which so injured him that he was glad to return to 
England upon one of the ships for surgical aid. When Smith de- 
parted from Jamestown he left five hundred colonists in the settle- 
ment. Upon the arrival of Gates six months later, from Bermuda, he 

50 



found but sixty alive. Altogether John Smith spent but two years 
and a half in Virginia, but he had by his great activity and valor so 
linked his name with the chain of colonial history that whatever his 
faults, many of which have been charged, he stands one of the prin- 
cipal figures in the picturesque chronicles of the Old Dominion. 




GRAND ORCHESTRION ON STEAMER POCAHONTAS. 

51 



THE 5T0RY OF POCAHONTAS. 

King Powhatan, otherwise Mamanatowick, Uved upon the north 
side of the stream, afterward called the York River, a few miles above 
the site of Yorktown, and when the earliest of English colonists 
arrived upon the James River they soon learned, doubtless, of his 
greatness as a native ruler, his domain extending far to the north, 
south and west of the village of Werowocomoco, which was the capital 
of his nation. He was soon known as a friend of the white strangers, 
although it was whispered that the mystery of the disappearance of 
Raleigh's lost colony upon Roanoke Island could have been explained 
by him. 

The American Indian, then as ever since, was a child when pleased, 
and nothing w^as so easy as to gain his confidence, but when aroused 
by the demon of his natural fury, he was the most implacable and 
cruel foe the pioneer of any land ever faced. 

The colony at Jamestown was made up of all kinds of elements, and 
while it was the declared policy of the Virginia Company and its 
trusted agents to conciliate and christianize the natives, there were, 
no doubt, frequent provocations of the wild children of the trackless 
forest, and almost from the beginning the vendetta of races com- 
menced. 

Upon the icth of December, 1807, Capt. John vSniith, one of the 
original company left at Jamestown when Captain Newport returned 
with his fleet to England, started upon one of his numerous tours of 
exploration, going up the Chickahominy River. As elsewhere related, 
the three men who were with him were killed, while Smith was re^ 
served for a like fate in the Indian council house. He was, at this 
time forty years of age. The tale has it that he was carried from 
village to village, kindly entertained and treated altogether in a most 
agreeable fashion until, one day "two great stones were brought 
before Powhatan ; then as many as could laid hands upon him, 
dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with 
their clubs to beat out his brains. Pocahontas, the kir^^'s dearest 
daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms 
and laid her own upon his to save him from death." "^' 

Pocahontas was, at this time, twelve or thirteen years old. The 
Indian meaning of her name is said to be " Little Wanton." 

*Capt. Johu Smith's History of Virginia. London, 1624. 

52 



There is a curious resemblance of the pretty story of this rescue 
with the experience of Juan Ortiz, one of the soldiers of I)e Soto, who 
having been captured by the Floridian Indians in 1539, was con- 
demned to the usual torture, when the daughter of Ucita, the chief, 
inten-ened her prayers to her father and thus saved him, and after 
several years of slavery, conducted him out of the forest in safety to 
tell the tale and afterward to become a valuable intermediary between 
the Spaniards and the Indians.* 

After Capt. John Smith had been restored to Jamestown, it is 
recorded that Pocahontas, whose home across the narrowest portion 
of the Peninsula was but a little distance away, was often a visitor 
at the English settlement, where she was on good terms with the 
boys and girls, romping with them in her scant apparel, and it is re- 
corded that she could turn ' ' cart-wheels ' ' with the best of the young- 
sters and was altogether a regular ''tom-boy." She was usually 
accompanied to Jamestown by a wild train of Indian companions, and 
more than once brought warning of danger from attack. The con- 
sistent sequel of the story of the saving of the captive by this pretty 
Indian girl is lacking in this instance, for she did not grow up while 
a grateful John Smith waited longingly to espouse her and thus become 
responsible for the still greater increase through many generations, 
of the innumerable John Smith's who now people the earth. No, she 
did better, for in time she married a respectable and altogether desir- 
able young man named John Rolfe, who was the first planter of 
tobacco in Virginia, and who had learned to love the comely young 
savage while she was held a prisoner at the Fort in Jamestown by 
Captain Argal as a hostage for the return of certain settlers and prop- 
erty captured by her royal parent. 

Pocahontas had, about this time, been baptised as a convert to 
Christianity under the name of Rebecca. 

John Rolfe was a widower, but his attachment for his dusky help- 
mate seems to have been constant and sincere. 

Upon hearing of the wish of the young colonist to marry his 
daughter, Powhatan was pleased and sent his uncle, the old chief 
Opachiso, with two of his sons and probably a suitable retinue, the 
king himself being too old and feeble to come, to witness the marriage. 

Rolfe and his wife lived near Henrico until 1616, when they voy- 
aged to England with Governor Dale. There were also several other 

* Portuguese Relation. 

53 



young Indian people with them, the object being to educate them as 
Christian teachers among their people, but one of them, Tamocomo, 
was the especial agent of his father-in-law, Powhatan, sent to verify 
the wondrous tales told him by the Virginia settlers. 

It may be well imagined that the advent of this picturesque dele- 
gation from a new world created a great flutter in London. The 
principal figure, Mrs. Rolfe, was duly presented at court, feted by the 
aristocracy and generally received as the daughter of a potentate. 
Throughout this experience it is said that her modesty and grace of 
bearing, and personal beauty won for her the admiration of all whom 
she met. 

It is sad to learn that this bright picture soon had an ending, for 
after about one year the beautiful Indian Princess died at Gravesend — a 
name sadly befitting the circumstance — as she was about to return to 
the colony of Virginia. While in England she became the mother of 




OLD HOUSE AT J AMESTOWN — 164O. 

54 



a son, who was named Thomas. The boy was educated by an English 
uncle, afterward coming to America and, settling at Henrico, became a 
prominent figure in local affairs. A daughter of Thomas Rolfe mar- 
ried Col. Robert Boiling, and from this union sprang by intermarriage 
with the Randolphs of Curl's Neck, many of the most influential and 
wealthy families of the Old Dominion. 

JAMESTOWN ISLAND. 

The culminating point in intense interest attending the voyage of 
the James River is found upon the approach of the steamer to the 
fine wharf at old Jamestown. Here is laid the scene of the series of 
tragic events which form a part of the history of the first successful 
colony of the English people in America. It is, indeed, the very 
birthplace of Anglo Saxon supremacy upon this continent. A spot 
which should be the annual Mecca of multitudes of patriotic Ameri- 
cans. 

The reader will, in perusing the brief relation of the story of Cap- 
tain John Smith, and the accompanying sketch of the life of his 




OLD POWDEK MAGAZINE AT JAMESTOWN. 
55 




CHUKCH AT JAMESTOWN. 



dusky rescuer, Pocahontas, derive an adequate idea of the history of 
the settlement during the first thirty months of its existence, dating 
from May 13th, 1607, when it was chosen by the Council after seven- 
teen days of exploration and discussion. 

These founders were Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith (who was 
under arrest), Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, 
John Martin and George Kendall. Of these the only one remaining to 
exercise authority at the end of a year and a half was John Smith. 

The arrival of Sir Thomas Gates, in May, 16 10, after his long 
detention by reason of shipwreck, found the remnant of the colony 
in such sad straits that he decided promptly upon the abandonment 
of the place, and upon the 7th of June the whole company sailed 
away from a spot which was so deadly to all their ambitions, purposing 
to go to Newfoundland, hoping there to find larger ships in which to 
embark for England. Upon arriving opposite a point of the southern 
shore of the James River, a few miles below Jamestown, the crews 
went ashore to hunt the wild hogs which were plentiful there and 
which gave the place its name of Hog Island (now Homewood). 
Here they remained two days, and this circumstance changed not only 
the destinies of the colonists but of civilization in this land, for as the 
little ships were waiting for the ebb tide a boat came to them from 
the seaward, bringing messages from the flagship of Lord De La 
Warre, who had reached the anchorage of old Point Comfort. The 
departing colonists were induced to return. 

Under De La Warre the life of the English along the river took 
on a new ambition. Sir George Somers and Captain Argall were 
sent to the Bermudas for hogs, the former soon dying there, the 
latter returning after a stormy experience. 

In 1661 Sir Thos. Dale came with an expedition, followed in 
August by another under Sir Thos. Gates. 

Settlements and forts were located at many points along the river. 
The growing of tobacco for the London market soon absorbed much 
of the energies and the cleared land of the colonists. 

The ravages of fever, from year to year, among the decimated 
population were offset by frequent arrivals of more colonists. Many 
cavaliers, adlierents of Charles I., were among them ; gentlemen and 
soldiers unaccustomed to hard work. Later when the throne had 
reverted to the son of the beheaded monarch of England, the Puritans 

57 



flocked across the seas and the Huguenots also came. Under the ad- 
ministration of Sir George Yeardley, Jamestown was unhappily made 
a Botany Bay for about one hundred felons from the prisons of the 
fatherland. Another and far different importation in this year, 1619, 
was the arrival of a considerable number of young English women, 
who were speedily bought up by the planters for wives at so much 
per head, payable in tobacco. 

During 1619 twelve ships arrived at Jamestown from over the seas, 
bringing a total of twelve hundred and sixty-one persons. This year 
also witnessed the assemblage of the first legislative body upon the 
continent, which met at Jamestown, in the church, and consisted of 
twenty-two represen tatives and the Governor and Council. About this 
time a Dutch ship landed a cargo of negro slaves at Jamestown, the 
first used by the English in America. 

During the years 1619, 1620 and 1621 the number of colonists sent 
to Virginia was three thousand five hundred and seventy. Many 
patents were granted to planters for private plantations, and the be- 
ginning of many of the noble estates which were long the pride of 
the South was then made. 

The year 1622 is memorable in the annals of the colony by a mas- 
sacre of the settlers at the weaker points and isolated plantations 
along the river, by the Indians. The whole number who perished in 
this tragic onslaught was about three hundred and fifty. The colonists 
who escaped flocked to Jamestown, abandoning what remained un- 
destroyed, and in London despair settled down upon the friends of the 
colony. The policy of conciliation and efforts to civilize the savages 
gave place to a determination to destroy them, and thus a war of 
races was waged, which long retarded the prosperity of the region. 

Lord Yeardley died in 1627 and was succeeded by Francis West, a 
brother of Lord De La Warre, and a year later the first royal Gov- 
ernor, Sir John Harvey, arrived. 

In 1634 the James River settlements were divided into eight shires, 
namely, James City, Henrico, Charles City, Elizabeth City, Warwick 
River, Warroquiyoake, Charles River and Accawmac. The shire of 
James City was sulidivided into James City, Yorkhampton and Bruton 
Parishes. 

In 1648 the number of English settlers and Americans of English 
parentage upon the banks of the James River numbered fifteen thou- 

58 



sand, and many fine residences the result of prosperity in the tobacco 
trade, were located along the wild- wood shores of the stream. 

The event which led to the final decline of Jamestown as a centre 
of authority and trade is found in Bacon's Rebellion, which, com- 
mencing through the efforts of certain fiery young planters to rid 
themsefves of the Indians, led to a quarrel with the testy old Gov- 
ernor, Sir William Berkeley, from which a small civil war resulted, 
during which Bacon's rebels captured and burned Jamestown in the 

year 1675. . ^ 

Governor Berkeley covered his name with iniamy by executing a 
number of citizens of good repute who happened to be among those 
who differed with him, but he was recalled to England by the King 
and died in merited disgrace. 

The burning of Jamestown does not appear to have led to its 
abandonment, for it is recorded that its population was considerable 
until near the end of the century. In 1690 the census of the Enghsh- 
speaking people in the colonies of the James was forty thousand. 

The growing importance of the middle plantations which gradu- 
ally developed into the settlement of the village of Williamsburg, 
resulted in the year 1705, in its selection as the seat of government. 
The College, new State House and Governor's Palace were soon the 
marvels of the country side and poor old Jamestown was left to testify 
to the mutability of human affairs. 

Many owners have possessed the land of Jamestown Island, and 
its successive title-holders have bestowed but scant care upon the 
remaining evidences of its old-time occupation as a busy pioneer 
community. 

Its present owner is Mr. Edward E. Barney, who has done more 
within a few years to develop its possibilities as a plantation and a 
patriotic resort than any of his predecessors. Large areas have been 
reclaimed from the marsh which once covered its rearward margins; 
roads have been built, and the fine old house has been made 
habitable. 

The land upon which the greater part of the original town was 
situated is now covered by the waters of the James River, and the con- 
stant crumbling of the earth along the shore, often revealing frag- 
ments of ancient brick walls, has long threatened the stability of the 
beautiful tower of the " first church built in America." This pictur- 

59 



esque land-mark is seen just above the wharf in the midst of the 
dense copse of sycamore trees and clambering vines which cover the 
little cemetery at its base. Just beyond it is the great mound of a Con- 
federate fort long held by the Southern soldiers during the Civil War. 
About an equal distance down stream, in the midst of the well- 
tilled fields, is the substantial mansion which is believed to be the 
oldest European house in America. 




BRIDGE AT JAMESTUWN. 



Dr. Jas, D. Moncure, a descendant of one of the early owners, 
writes in response to an inquiry as follows : 

" Wii^iyiAMSBURG, Va., April 17, 1894. 
"Jamestown was situated on the upper end of the island, which 
was then a peninsula, connecting with the main land at a point now 
known as ' Amblers, ' the thoroughfare being the mouth of Powhatan 
Creek. The mansion was built about 1640 by Wm. Cary or Carey, 
son of the then Mayor of Bristol, England, Wm. Cary left the prop- 
erty to his daughter Martha, who married Edward Jaquelin, a Hu- 
guenot, and a relative of the famous Vendean Chief, De la Roche 
Jaquelin, royalist leader in the First French Revolution. Mr. Ed- 
ward Jaquelin gave the place to his daughter Elizabeth, who married 
Richard Ambler, the son of John Ambler, Sheriff of West Riding, 
Yorkshire, England. Richard left the property to his son Edward 
Ambler, who married Mary Cary, the daughter of Col. Wilson Cary, 
of Celeys. Miss Mary Car}^ was sought in marriage by Gen. George 

61 



Washington, when a youth, while she, Mary Cary, was on a visit to 
her sister, Mrs. George Wm. Fairfax. See Bishop Meade's book, Col. 
Gary's reply to Washington's suit.* 

" Edward Ambler left the mansion to his only surviving son. Col. 
John Ambler, who commanded the James City troop during the revo- 
lution. 

" The British burned the house in 1776, and it was rebuilt in 1780 
on the old foundations except the wings, which extended on each side 
of the present house, and a veranda occupied the entire front. This 
house was again destroyed in 1862 by the Federal army, leaving the 
old solid walls still standing. The interior was rebuilt on a different 
plan in 1866-67. Col. John Ambler gave this place to his eldest son. 
Major Edward Ambler, who sold it in 1821. Col. Ambler's son, John 
Jaquelin Ambler, states in his family records that as a boy ten years 
old, he had often walked from Jamestown to the 'Main' Farm, now 
known as the Main, Amblers and St. Georges. My uncle, John 
Jaquelin Ambler, was born in 1800. 

"]\Iy records state that the estate of Jamestown contained in 1781, 
3,200 acres; this does not include that part of the island subsequently 
bought from Sam. Travis. 

" Richard Ambler built the first custom house in the English col- 
onies at Yorktown, still standing, and he came here to take charge of 
the custom dues. 

" Yours very truly, etc., 

"J AS. D. MONCURE." 

Edward Jaquelin referred to in Mr. ]Moncure's communication was 
a son of John Jaquelin and Elizabeth Craddock, the father being one 
of the noble family of La Roche Jaquelin, Huguenots, who fled frou 
France during the reign of Charles IX. before the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, saving and bringing away much of their great wealth. 

Soon after the property was transferred to its new owner, Mrs. 
Louise J. Barney presented all of the land in the immediate vicinity 
of the old church tower, covering an area of 23 acres, to the Associa- 
tion for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities at Richmond, the 

* Note. —The reply of Wilsou Cary, P>q., to Washingtoa'.s .suit for his daughter 
was in these words : " If that is your business here, sir, I wish you to leave th^- 
house, for my daughter has been accustomed to ride in her own coach." The 
young lady has been said to closely resemble Martha Washington. 

62 



gift thus bestowed covering the land still re:naining upon which 
foundations of the early homes of Jamestown may be traced, and 
granting free use of wharves, roadways and bridges upon the 
estate. 

The fine old tower presents a most interesting study to the histor- 
ical student and all intelligent travelers. It bears internal evidence 
of having been utilized as a watch-tower, having three floors, the cen- 
tre one being reached, probably, by a movable ladder, and neatly 
plastered as a guard-room, while the upper story was provided with 
loop-holes for musketry. No traces are now to be found of a church 
structure, but this is explained by the statement made in Bishop 
Meade's writings"', wherein he states that about the end of the last 

century, Mr. William Lee, 
^^^'^ of Green Spring and Mr. 

John Ambler, used the 
bricks of the former church 
foundations to build a wall 
around the graves, enclos- 
ing an area about one- 
third the size of the original 
cemetery, and including 
the church site. This wall 
still r^jnains partly in 
place. 

Hardly second in point 
of interest to the old tower 
of English made brick are 
the graves of the sleepers in the shadows of the little church-yard. 
The saplings planted here by loving hands have so grown about and 
over several of the tombstones as to partially envelop them in their 
trunks, lifting them from their original places. Such is the case 
especially in regard to the tomb of Lady Berkeley. 

Pending the proposed restoration of this sacred acre most of the 
gravestones have been numbered and removed to a safe place, their 
respective locations being carefully marked. One large slab of 
English iron-stone remains in its original situation, however, con- 
taining the following v>ell-executed inscription : 

* Old Churches, :Miuisters and Families of Virginia, by Bishop Meade, 1857. 




FRAGMENT OF LADY BERKELEY S GRAVESTONE. 



6J 



■*- 



Under this stone lies interr'd 
The Body of 
Mrs. Hannah Ludwei^Iv, 
Relict of 
The Hon. Philip Ludwei.!/, Esq 
By whom she has left 
One vSon and Two Daughters. 
After a most Exemplary Life 
Spent in the chearful Innocence 
And The Constant Exercise of 
Piety, Charity and Hospitality, 

She Patiently Submitted to 

Death on the 4th Day of April, 

1 73 1, in the 5 2d Year 

of her Age. 

The cemeteries contain many 
members of the families of Lud- 
well, Beverley, Byrd, Jaquelin, 
Ambler, Travis, Harrison, Ed- 
wards and Blair. 

Regarding the claim that the 
existing tower was a part of the 
first church built by Christians 
in America, Bishop INIeade makes 
the statement that the earliest 
place of worship was made from 
old sails fastened to trees, the 
second was a log building, which 
was soon burned down, the 
third was a wooden building, 
24x60 feet, built prior to 16 11, 
and is probably the one in which 
Lord De la Warre, as Governor, 
the Council and other officers 
deliberated, and in which Gov- 
ernor Yeardley held sessions for 
public business in 1619. 

64 






« 






« 



SUSANNA TRAVIS, GRAVESTONE, JAMESTOWN. 



The dimensions of the old church of which the tower was a part 
were 28x56 feet, and it is beheved, therefore, that this church was 
erected after the burning at the time of Bacon's RebelHon in 1676, and 
used long after the removal of the Government to Williamsburg in 1705. 

In 1733 a silver font was presented to the church by two members 
of the Ambler family. 

In the midst of a copse of trees, surrounded by plowed fields, 
nearly a mile from the manor house, is a ruined little cemetery 
enclosure containing the graves of some noted Virginians. It is the 
site of the main church upon the old Williamsburg road. The tombs 
here are also embedded in the old trees, and upon those in sight the 
sculptured letters are artistically cut in the enduring black marble, as 
sharp and clear as when they came from the English workman. Two 
of them bear a well drawn death's head, in low relief, crowmed with 
a wreath of laurel. 




i'\ - 

GKAVESTONE, TRAVIS CEME'lEKY, JAMESTOWN. 
65 



WILLIAnSBURG. 

It is but a few miles across the peninsula formed by the James and 
York rivers in the vicinity of Jamestown Island, and intermediate is 
the picturesque old town of Williamsburg, Virginia's first State capital, 
and, with the exception of Harvard, the seat of America's oldest 
college, William and Mary, dating from 1692. A direct highway is 
soon to connect the wharf at Jamestown with Williamsburg, thus 
giving the residents an excellent connection with steamers. 

One of the undertakings seriously considered in this region at 
present is the completion of a trolley system connecting Old Point 
Comfort, Hampton, Newport News, Big Bethel, Yorktown, Williams- 
burg and Jamestown Island, with steamboat connection up or down 
the James river, thus forming the most interesting, historic belt-line 
in America. Williamsburg was founded in 1632. 

The old Capitol in which Patrick Henry made one of his greatest 
speeches, including the defiance, " If this be treason make the most 
of it," was burned in 1832, 

A recent visitor to Williamsburg has written of it in the following 
appreciative way : 

* ' Before the late war, it was the boast of the people that not a pauper 
could be found, and in proof of that, I am told that the communion 
alms collected from various churches had to be sent elsewhere for 
distribution. Interest and curiosity led me to present my letters of 
introduction, and very soon I learned from venerable lips, nothing 
loth to dwell upon the grandeur of the past, of the illuminations at 
Lord Dunsmore's palace ; of the grand balls given there, when coaches 
and four rolled up the avenue, filled w4th ladies and gentlemen in all 
the glories of lace ruffles, farthingales, patches and powders ; of the 
excitement of the citizens when Tarleton with his dragoons, dashed 
up Duke of Gloucester street, or of the visit of General Lafayette in 1824. 
There is not a foot of ground in the place that has not some historic 
or romantic interest. At the head of Duke of Gloucester street stands 
William and Mary College. She has been called the ' Westminster 
of America,' for in her dark vaults lie entombed the ashes of Lord 
Bosetome, Bishop Madison, Sir John Randolph, Peyton Randolph, 
Chancellor Nelson and many others equally celebrated in the history 
of America. 

66 



i 



" At the opposite end of the street, immediately facing the college,, 
stood the Capitol and midway between the two is Bruton Parish 
church, perhaps the oldest Episcopal church now in use in the United 
States ; no one knows its age, but the authorities on such subjects are 
inclined to the belief that the oldest part, the Norman tower, dates 
as far back as 1640. 

"The communion service and font, still in use, were brought hither 
from a church in Jamestown, which had been burnt. As it is a well- 
known fact that Pocahontas was baptized in the church at Jamestown, 
so we may safely conclude it was at this very font that the ordinance 
was performed. There are two other communion services. One, 
bearing the arms of England, and presented by King George III., 
is of massive silver. But as to the other, which is of gold, there has. 
been much dissension ; some think that Queen Anne was the donor. 
The bell of the church w^as given by an English gentleman, and there 
is a pretty tradition connected with it. It is related that while the- 
metal was in a liquid state Queen Anne threw into it a lapful of silver,, 
which is the cause of its peculiarly musical tone. 

' ' The church is built in the form of a cross, the brick having been, 
brought from England, 'packed in oil.' Literally, 

O'er buttress aud tower the ivy is creeping ; 
lu its lone, dark aisles the weary are sleeping, 

for a large part of the edifice is covered by a luxuriant growth of 
vine, and in the vaults beneath sleep many noble sons of the Com- 
monwealth. 

"Strangers always pause before one grave, that of Lady Christine 
Stuart, sister of Charles Stuart, Earl of Traquaire, and a member of the 
royal house of Scotland. She married a Virginia gentleman, and lived 
and died in Williamsburg. There is no tombstone to mark the spot,, 
but the ivy creeps lovingly over the place, and it is well remembered. 
The descendants of this lady are the nearest living relatives of Mary- 
Stuart, and many of them inherit the grace and beauty of that ever- 
fascinating queen. 

" Not far below the church, in the same street, is the Court House,, 
designed by Sir Christopher Wren and called by architects ' a build- 
ing perfect in its proportions. " 

"Near by is the house in which General Winfield vScott boarded 
avv'hile, a student at ' William and Mary ' ; also the office in which. 

68 



the Virginian Gazette, established in 1700, was printed. Still lower' 
down was the site of the old Raleigh tavern, where, within the so- 
called ' Apollo Hall,' Patrick Henry and his comrades uttered so 
many treasonable sentiments. 

"Not a stone's throw from this spot stood the clerk's office and the 
Capitol ; and on Frances street, near by, was the boarding house in 
which the members of the House of Burgesses took their meals. 

" Continuing my strolls I soon found the Masonic Lodge, of which 
General Washington was a member ; in the building his chair is care- 
fully preserved. 

'"'The vSaunders Homestead, adjoining the palace grounds, the 
Wythe Mansion and other early residences, hint of the grandeur of 
days long faded into history and whose once proud and happy inmates 
sleep in forgotten graveyards. ' ^SV^ transit gloria mundi. 

SCOTLAND. 

When the steamer Pocahontas turns away from Jamestown she 
heads across the river to the landing of Scotland, where extensive 
wharfage, great piles of lumber, cordwood, and pyramids of barrels 
account for the presence of a group of vessels, large schooners and 
tugs. The prongs of a railway, the "Surry, Sussex and Southamp- 
ton " lead out upon the wharves, either side of the warehouse, and 
connect tidewater with the three counties indicated in its title. 

This place, as well as many others along the river, must suggest, 
to the passing traveler who is of a practical nature, the abundant and 
varied opportunities for profitable investment in cheap forest lands; 
in fruit-preserving plants; building material establishments, and 
varied industries for which the raw material is close at hand and 
which the facilities for cheap water carriage place in close touch with 
the centres of traffic. Labor is low priced and plentiful, the entire 
region wonderfully healthful, and so easily reached that the business 
man, leaving New York at 8 P. M., may arrive at river points 
(upon alternate days, at present), as far as Jamestown before 12 
o'clock the next day. 

HOMEWOOD. 

Less than a dozen years ago this peninsula, known upon the maps 
as Hog Island, was acquired by Mr. Edward E. Barney, of Dayton, 
Ohio, who foresaw its possibilities both in regard to fertility and its 

70 



advantage of location for shipment of stock and products of the soil. 
Large sums were expended upon dyking, ditching and other im- 
provements. Tasteful cottages were built and furnished to meet the 
requirements of the owner and his family, his manager and employes 
and for offices. Great stables and barns were provided, and a long 
pier carried out to deep water. The estate covers 3,200 acres, a large 
tract being covered with heavily timbered forest, through which 
roads have been hewn and graded. Here the grand sweep of the 
James River surrounds the cultivated acres upon three-quarters of the 
circle. The grazing fields are well dotted with fine cattle. Great 
squares of corn and other cereals rest green in the summer sunshine, 
every sort of table produce is grown upon an extensive scale. The 
soft winds lave the sandy beach with musical wavelets, well-kept 
lawns, bright with flowers, surround the pretty avenue of houses, and 
with its store, warehouses, post office and the other essentials of this 
industrial principality, there is represented the embodiment of a suc- 
cessful agricultural village in the heart of the most favored section of 
the United States, wheli all conditions are fairly taken into account. 
Pure water is obtained in abundance here, as at Jamestown and 
Meadowville, Mr. Bafney's additional properties, by driven wells 
from 400 to 600 feet deep. F'isli and oysters of the finest kinds are the 
yield of the broad river. Deer roam the forest, partridge, quail, duck, 
and wild turkeys delight the hunter with their abundance. The en- 
thusia.sm of the resident owner in this ideal place is justified by the 
results of the faith which tempted him to undertake this notable re- 
clamation of a wild and long neglected spot. 

Within the present season (1895), it is expected that an extensive 
plant will be placed here by the Petersburg Canning Company fof 
the preserving of fruits and vegetables grown upon the plantation. 

The tourist dining tipori board of the steamer Pocahontas will find 
the table garnished with early vegetables from Homewood atid 
Jamestown. The only stop made by the steamer between Homewood 
Landing and Newport News, distant about 20 miles, is 

FERGUSSONS, 

which, like Scotland, is a lumbering and fishing station. The river 
broadens in its estuary to about five miles, and the channel is nearly 
direct to the great elevators which loom above the level of the 

72 



Virginia low-lands at the seaboard terminus of the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Railway at 

NEWPORT NEWS. 

If the war of 1861-65 devastated Virginia in the attrition of con- 
testing armies, it certainly bestowed great eventual prosperity upon 
her once drowsy seaports. Nowhere in the South has material pros- 
perity been more constant or more overflowing with promise of an 
abundant future than within the capes of Charles and Henlopen. 
Norfolk has developed, Portsmouth revived, Old Point Comfort re- 
juvenated, and Newport News, which lay a dormant and unconsidered 
plain before the armies of the Union whitened its fields with tents in 
1861, has been created. 

The restless energy of capital, forever seeking a point of union 
between inland and seagoing transportation, the essentials of which 
are cheap railway construction, low grades, deep water and a pro- 
tected anchorage, found, at Newport News, all of these advantages. 
Within a dozen years a city now having a population of about 8,000 
has come into existence. Mr. C. P. Huntington, president of the 
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, built his peninsular line down from 
Richmond through the old battle fields, spread a maze of sidings at 
the water side just here, reared lofty grain elevators, and massive coal 
piers, built the Hotel Warwick, fronting upon a pretty park, with its 
casino and pleasure pavilions, and a little later the Newport News 
Ship Building and Dry Dock Company began the construction of one 
of the greatest ship yards and dry docks in the world, with machine 
shops which employ a brigade of skilled workers both in construction 
and repair of sea-going vessels, two of which launched from this yard 
are the largest iron commercial vessels yet made in this country. 

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway is 1,300 miles in length, its 
western terminals being Lexington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, 
those in the east being Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York to the 
northward, and Washington, Newport News and Norfolk in the south. 
It passes through numerous centres of manufacturing, mining and 
agricultural industry. 

It is about creating a transatlantic steamship line from Newport 
News to Liverpool and London. M. E. Ingalls, Esq., its present 
executive, and also President of the extensive "Big Four" Railroad 
system is associated with Mr. Edward E. Barney and others in the 

73 



operation of the steamers upon the James River. The number of 
wharves is seven, depth of water at wharf ends, 26 feet at low tide. 
Three banks, seven land companies, three building and loan associa- 
tions, water works, electric lighting, electric railway, ice factory and 
about 200 business firms exist at this point, as well as good schools^ 
a newspaper — the Sim, churches, an opera house and a first class hotel. 
The trolley line extends from Newport News to Hampton and Old 
Point Comfort. Just in front of the coal wharves, and a little distance 
offshore, lies the wreck of the U. S. frigate Cumberland, sunk at the 
time of the memorable fight between the Monitor and Merrimac. 
This event, which has resulted in a radical change in the navies of 
the world, took place in Hampton Roadstead, in the immediate vicinity 
of Newport News, and should have more than passing mention. 



THE MONITOR AND MERRIMAC. 

The vState of Virginia, whose deep attachment to the Union is in- 
dicated by the cession of her claims to the Northwest Territor}^ and 
her successive efforts in the interest of harmony, having failed to 
arrest the dismemberment of the government, by the Peace Commis- 
sion, and the Peace Congress, which she had inaugurated in 186 r, 
seceded on the 17th of April, 1S61, upon President Lincoln's proclama- 
tion of April 15th, calling for the enlistment of 75,000 troops from the 
States then in the Union, to suppress the so-called rebellion of the 
Southern States. 

At dusk on the evening of the 20th of April, 1861, the U. S. Steamer 
Pawnee, reached the Norfolk Navy Yard, with dispatches from Wash- 
ington to Commodore C. S. McCauley, then in charge of that station. 
The Union forces at the yard, consisting of the frigate Cumberland, 
the sloop of war Pawnee, and some 800 officers, sailors and marines, 
deluded by the bold front of the small Confederate force then in Nor- 
folk, and by the I'use de guerre of running empty trains up and down 
the Petersburg R. R., presumably bringing in re-enforcements, were 
induced to abandon the post that night, after a partial destruction of 
its buildings, ships, stores and munitions of war. 

On the 30th of INIay one of these ships, scuttled, partially burned, 
and known as the INIerrimac, was raised, docked, and in time, became 
the Confederate iron-clad Virginia. The middle portion of the hull 

74 



^or about 170 feet was covered with a casemate of wood ; the sides, 
inclined at an angle of 35 degrees, were covered with 4 inches of iron 
plating, which was rolled at the Tredegar Works in Richmond. The 
bow and stern projecting from under this casemate, about 58 feet at 
each end, were decked over, and submerged about 2 feet under water. 
When prepared for action, the Virginia had much the appearance of an 
acute angled house roof afloat. 

March 8th, 1862. The Virginia, attended by the small gunboats, 
Beaufort and Raleigh, left the harbor of Norfolk at 11 A. M., and 
reaching Newport News at 3 P. M. attacked the Federal fleet stationed 
at the entrance of the James, at about the river front now included 
within the Chesapeake & Ohio piers. The U. S. frigate Cumberland, 
mounting 24 large guns, was struck in the starboard fore chains by the 
ram of the Virginia and sunk within less than half an hour. The U. S. 
frigate Congress, of 40 guns, endeavored to escape the fate of her 
consort, but went aground, head in shore. In this position she was 
attacked by the Virginia, the two gunboats, Beaufort and Raleigh, and 
the armed steamers, Patrick Henry and Jamestown, which came down 
the James River to aid the Confederate fleet. The Congress was sur- 
rendered in about 45 minutes after the Cumberland had sunk, and 
was burned that night by the Confederates. The loss in the Cumber- 
land, killed or drowned, amounted to 120, in the Congress to 130. 
That night the Virginia anchored off Sewell's Point, to complete the 
destruction of the Federal fleet at Old Point the next morning. On the 
morning of the 9th of March, 1862, the Virginia moved out into the 
Roads to complete the destruction of the frigate Minnesota, which 
had been prevented the evening before by the approach of night, but 
now found a new and unexpected antagonist in the Monitor, or Erics- 
son, which had reached Old Point the night before at 10 P. M. A 
battle ensued between these two ironclads for four hours, but without 
material damage to either. The Monitor having w^ithdrawn once from 
the action to hoist shot into her turret, as was subsequently explained 
by her executive ofiBcer, and having now at 12 o'clock again retired 
from the action in consequence of the severe wounding of Capt. 
Worden (by the explosion of a shell from the Virginia, which resulted 
in some confusion from a change in the command), the commander of 
the Virginia, after waiting a reasonable time, as he thought — about 
three-quarters of an hour — for the Monitor to return to the field of 

75 



action, took advantage of the flood tide then running, and proceeded 
to Norfolk, to repair the damage to his battery, some of the guns of 
which had been broken off and otherwise rendered useless in the 
engagement of the day before with the Union fleet. 

On the nth of April, 1862, the Virginia again visited the Roads, 
and offered battle to the Monitor, and Stevens' iron battery, then at 
Old Point, in the presence of the Gassendi and Catinet, French men- 
of-war, and the Rinaldo, an English man-of-war. The gage not being 
accepted, the Confederates then proceeded, with two of their wooden 
gunboats, to capture and bring out three Union merchant vessels lying 
at anchor at Hampton Bar. This done, the Virginia waited in the 
Roads until 5 P. M., and then returned to Norfolk, as the Monitor 
still lay under the guns of Fort Monroe. 

May the 8th 1862. The Virginia made her third visit to the Roads, 
at the time the Monitor, Stevens' Naugatuck, and other Union vessels 
were engaged in shelling the Confederate battery at Sewell's Point. 
Upon the appearance of the Virginia the Union vessels retired to Old 
Point, the Virginia followed them to within two miles of Fort Mon- 
roe, but observing no purpose to engage, returned and anchored off 
Sewell's Point. 

The concentration of the Confederate army at Richmond to oppose 
McClellan necessitated the evacuation of Norfolk. The Virginia being 
utterly unseaworthy, and her draught of water 23 feet, rendering 
lier removal up the James River impossible, she was run ashore in the 
bight of Craney Island, on the eastern side, the evening of May loth, 
1862 (Norfolk being then in the possession of the Federal troops), and 
being set on fire that night by the Confederates, blew up at 5 A. M. 
of the I ith. 

The Monitor was lost at sea off Cape Hatteras the night of Dec. 
31st, 1862. 

See "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," Centur^'^ Co., Vol. I, p. 692, el seg. 
"U. S. Rebellion Records," Series I., Vols. V. and IX. and Vol. XI. Part III. " New- 
York Herald," April 12th, 13th, and 15th, 1862. 

OLD POINT COMFORT AND FORT MONROE. 

Old Point Comfort is a name which lingers pleasantly in the memo- 
ries of thousands of pleasure travelers, Long before the operations 
hereabout during the Civil War a large, old fashioned hotel, very popu- 

76 



lar with the families of the affluent planters, was located in front of 
the great fort, but early in the struggle, after it had served for some 
time as a hospital, it was destroyed by orders of the Government to 
allow free command of the harbor to the guns upon the nearby ram- 
parts. 

Soon after the war, Mr. Harrison Phoebus, who was connected 
with the express business at this point, built a small hotel, mainly 
for the accommodation of the army families, from which modest 
building has grown the present great Hygeia Hotel, one of the most 
successful watering places in the United States, open throughout 
the year, and always gay with coming and going travelers who find 
this a most agreeable midway point between the North and the South. 

Upon the opposite side of the little street which leads back across 
the government reservation, from the fine government wharf and the 
Hygeia Hotel, is the new and costly Chamberlain Hotel, which, at 
this writing, is approaching completion, and will speedily, no doubt, 
find a large patronage, especially as the Hygeia is often taxed, in the 
season, beyond its capacity. 

Fort Monroe is the most extensive of our military fortifications. 
It was commenced in 1819, and is a massive example of the old-time 
defensive work, being heavily built of hewn stone, surrounded by a 
moat, with case-mated and barbette guns, and a great water battery. 
The parade is surrounded by barracks and officers' houses set in a 
profusion of shade, the whole forming a very pretty village of military 
flavor, which is always open, with its little chapel, neat walks, trophies 
and picturesque parades, to the civilian sojourners. 

Fort Monroe is the National Artillery School, and the practice at 
sea-targets with the big guns is very interesting. 

Representative ships of the new navy of this country and of foreign 
powers are nearly always anchored in front of Old Point Comfort. 
The young officers of the artillery vie with their brother warriors of 
the ocean in striving for the smiles of the beautiful girls who are 
never wanting at the Hygeia Hotel. 

From Old Point Comfort a trolley line leads across to the main 
land of the Peninsula, through the village of Hampton, which has an 
ancient church worth the stranger's call, and on to the National 
Military Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the main building" 
of which was in ante belliim days the " Chesapeake Female College.'* 

77 



The beautiful grounds of the Home and its constantly growing 
cemetery of aged inmates adjoin the Hampton Normal and Agricul- 
tural Institute, which is devoted to the education of young Negroes 
and Indians of both sexes, for the spread of enlightenment among their 
races. Seventeen trustees representing six evangelical denominations 
control the Institute, which employs the services of about eighty 
instructors and assistants, and has an average of above 900 pupils of 
all grades. The majority of the graduates become teachers of their 
people. The "plant" of the Institute cost $550,000, which was 
donated by humane persons from many sections, from which source 
about $60,000 is annually received for operating expenses. Large 
sums are earned by the students by labor in return for tuition. 

Visitors are made welcome at both the institutions above described. 

The trolley line extends beyond these interesting places to New- 
port News. 

BIG BETHEL. 

A short distance from Old Point Comfort upon the old road to 
Yorktown is the scene at Big Bethel of one of the early engagements 
of the Civil War. 

Upon the preceding evening an expedition left the fortified Union 
camps near the lower end of the Peninsula to attack the Confederates, 
who were strongly entrenched at that place. The Union troops in- 
cluded Duryea's Zouaves, Townsend's Albany Regiment, a Naval 
Brigade and Battalion of Regulars from P'ort Monroe. 

In the darkness the troops fired into each other, and upon the 
morning of June loth, 1861, proceeded to engage the enemy. The 
expedition had but little artillery, while the Confederates were able 
to use about thirty cannon well masked, and the result was a repulse, 
the most notable and regrettable casualty being the death of Lieut. 
John T. Greble, of the Regular troops, who commanded the battery ; 
a young officer of fine promise and influential family, resident in 
Philadelphia. 

The steamer Pocahontas connects upon alternate mornings at Old 
Point Comfort with Baltimore and Washington steamers and the 
transfer boat from Cape Charles, which brings the passengers via the 
New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad, who left New York 
the preceding evening at 8 o'clock. Breakfast may be had upon board 
the Pocahontas. 

78 



NORFOLK. 

The distance between Old Point Comfort and Norfolk via steamer 
is a little more than ii miles. This interim of space has been covered 
by the steamer Pocahontas in 36 minutes. 

In approaching Norfolk the vast coal shipping wharves of the 
Norfolk & Western Railroad are seen at Lambert's Point upon the left. 
Many large steam and sail craft are always clustered here awaiting their 
■cargoes. The channel leading to the city is guarded by Fort Norfolk 
upon the left, while opposite is the large building of the Marine Hos- 
pital, standing out vividly against the sombre screen of dense pine grove. 

The Eastern and Southern branches of the Elizabeth River give 
Norfolk and its neighbor Portsmouth an extraordinary amount of 
wharfage room, and the facilities for transhipment are admirable. 

The following "manifest," borrowed from a recent excellent local 
book, condenses the story of Norfolk's great trade into very concise 
form : — 

Norfolk is distinguished among American cities for its cotton, 
lumber, truck, coal, oyster and peanut trades. 

As a jobbing emporium and manufacturing place. 

For its foreign and coastwise traffic, its navy yard and seaside resorts. 

And for its story : 

It was founded in 1680. 

Besieged and burnt in the Revolutionary War. 

Besieged in the War of 18 12, and the Civil War. 

And was the scene of the Monitor and Merrimac encounter in 1862. 

It is in latitude 37 degrees north, and longitude 76. 

The aggregate annual commerce is now $150,000,000. 

The leading lines are as follows : 

Cotton . . . 1:35,000,000 Coal and Iron . . . 16,785,000 

Jobbing . . . 24,000,000 Truck 8,000,000 

Lumber. . .10,000,000 Oysters and Fish . , 2,500,000 
Manufactures 10,000,000 Peanuts 1,250,000 

The exports (cotton chiefly) are 130,000,000 a year. 

The bank clearings are |;55, 000,000 a year. 

Of transportation lines Norfolk has : 

Railroads 10 

Coastwise steamship lines 5 

Bay, sound and river lines 7 

79 



Norfolk mingles an intensely commercial atmosphere with the 
pleasant conventionalities of the old Southern town. The many new 
and costly homes in recently projected suburbs of Ghent and else- 
where contrast strongly with the roomy old-fashioned mansions of 
days gone by near the West End. At the Chamber of Commerce one 
will meet the representative citizens who have pushed their city to 
the front rank among seaports, and who will later entertain the stranger 
pleasantly at the " Business News Exchange " or the Virginia Club. 




ST. PAl'L S CHURCH, NORFOLK. 



Among the notable buildings of Norfolk are the City Hall, 
Atlantic Hotel, Old St. Paul's Church, New City Market, Y. U. C. 
A. Hall, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, New Brambleton Ward 
School, Haddington Office Building, Norfolk Academy, New Atlantic 
City Ward School, Marine Bank. 

Old St. Paid's Church is much visited by strangers in town. It 
was erected in 1739, restored in 1S32, and reoccupied in 1865. Its 

So 



ancient cemetery, together with the ivy clad structure, form a most 
picturesque though melancholy picture. 

The people of Norfolk take their seashore pleasure at Ocean View, 
a few miles to the north, upon the shore of Han.pton Roadstead, and 
at Virginia Beach a short ride by rail through the piney woods to 
the eastward, where the handsome Princess Anne Hotel fronts upon 
the unhindered sea. This place rivals Old Point Comfort in popular- 
ity with Northern visitors. The landing of the steamer Pocahontas at 
Norfolk is at the Clyde Line wharves, convenient to the street cars 
and trains. She also touches at Portsmouth. 

In conclusion it is earnestly hoped that the traveler over the James 
river route who has, by the aid of these pages, learned something of 
the storied past, the busy present and roseate future of this fruitful 
region, and its historic river, will feel so well repaid for the tour he 
has undertaken that it will lead him to commend its thronging at- 
tractions to many others who as yet only know of its charms " dimly 
as seen or heard from afar." 

VIRGINIA LAWS IN REFERENCE TO ALL GAME, 
INCLUDING PARTRIDGES. 

Sec. 2079. Unlawful Hunting. — It shall be unlawful for any 
person. 

First, of Deer. — To kill or capture any deer, or chase any deer 
with dogs with intent to kill the same (such deer not being his own, 
tamed, or enclosed in a park), from the first day of January until the 
fifteenth day of August ; or to chase any deer with dogs in the county 
of Frederick, at any time prior to the eighteenth day of January, 
eighteen hundred and eighty-eight ; or, 

Second, of Partridges, Pheasants, or Wild Turkeys ; destruc- 
tion of their egs^. — To kill or capture, or offer for sale or buy any 
partridges or quails between the first day of January and the fifteenth 
day of October ; or any pheasants or ruff"ed grouse, or wild turkeys, 
between the first day of February and the fifteenth day of September, 
in the counties west of the Blue Ridge (except Rockbridge), and in 
Rockbridge and the counties east of the Blue Ridge (except Prince 
Edward), between the fifteenth day of January and the fifteenth day 
of October, and in Prince Edward between the first day of March and 
the fifteenth day of October ; or at any time to take or destroy the 



i 



eggs of partridges or quail, pheasants or ruffed grouse, or wild 
turkeys, or catch them with nets or traps ; or. 

Third, of Wild Water=Fowl.— To kill any wild water-fowl (ex- 
cept the summer duck) between the first day of May and the first day 
of September, or to kill any wild water-fowl, except from the land, at 
any time during the night ; or to kill them with a gun which cannot 
be conveniently raised and fired at arm's length from the shoulder 
without a rest ; or at any time to capture them in traps or nets, or by 
other contrivances : provided, that wild geese may be killed either 
during the day or night, but in no case shall floating reflectors, 
lamps, or lights of any kind be used in shooting them in the night, and 
nothing in this clause shall apply to the wild water-fowl called sora ; or 

Fourth,of Marsh Hen, 
Willett, or Gull ; their 
^SgS. — To shoot or in any 
manner kill or destroy 
the bird known as the 
marsh hen, or take its 
eggs, later in the season 
than the twentieth of 
June ; or shoot, or in any 
manner kill or destroy 
the bird known as tha 
willet, or take its eggs, 
later in the season than 
the twentieth of July ; or 
.shoot, or in any manner 
\i\\ or destroy the bird 
Icnown as the gull or 
striker, before the first 
-day of September, or take 
its eggs later in the season 
than the twentieth of 
July ; or. 

Fifth, of Woodcock, 
Mocking = Bird, Buz = 

zard, and so forth.— To kill or capture woodcock between the first 
day of April and the first day of November, or at any time, to kill 

82 




DAY S SHOOTING ON THE JAMES. 



the turkey buzzard or black buzzard, or to capture for sale or trans- 
portation or kill the mocking-bird, or kill or capture the brown thrush, 
cardinal or red bird, wood-robin, blue-bird, house- martin, or starling, 
or destroy their nests ; except in Alexandria and Fairfax counties it 
shall not be lawful to kill or capture woodcock between the first day 
of January and the fourth day of July each year. 

By special request the venerable Major A. H. Drewry has furnished 
for publication in this book the following able notes upon 

TIDE-WATER VIRGINIA. 

" This region has always been regarded as one of the most favored 
sections of the 'Old Dominion. ' Various water courses irrigate a region 
naturally rich and highly productive of all the cereals, and the profit- 
able growth of grapes and other fruits for trucking and stock raising. 

"Much of the land is underlaid with fine deposits of marl, the most 
potent of fertilizers, with the development of rapid and cheap transpor- 
tation from all the river points for all kinds of produce to the great 
cities of the North, ready sale for all surplus products seems now 
assured, greatly to the benefit of the farmer, the handler and the con- 
sumer. 

"In point of abundance of food this region is unsurpassed by any 
portion of the whole country. There is an unfailing supply of fish 
and oysters, game of every kind, including deer, water and wood- 
fowl, among the latter being the partridge and wild turkey, and, in 
short, all the conditions of an idyllic existence. 

"The population being almost purely native American, and largely 
descendants of the old families, is unusually cultured and refined. 

"With the improved drainage of low tracts along the river malarial 
conditions seem to have disappeared, while the genial and equable 
climate acts effectually against the inroads of typhoids, pneumonia 
and like diseases prevalent in less favored latitudes. 

" Here the pleasure seeker and the invalid may alike enjoy the 
bright sunny days of winter at a time when the frosty winds and 
snows of the North would keep them in that region closely indoors. 
In verification of all this the passing traveler, especially upon the 
trip along the James River, may easily discover that a large propor- 
tion of the beautiful old mansions along its leafy shores are the 

83 



homes of hale old men, born and bred there, scions of the families 
of long ago, real old Virginia gentlemen who have enjoyed life to 
its fullest and attained an age of 75 or So years, specimens of a class 
which in passing away has endowed large families with an abundance 
of this world's goods out of the profits of farming, a pursuit which, 
in the long run, is the best any man can follow ; its. rewards may be 
slow but they are far more sure than those of any other form of 
occupation. Here, under his own ' vine and fig tree ' the land owner 
may rest at ease, secure against the terrors of blizzards, strikes and 
panics, happy in the society of those he loves and for whom he 
cheerfully toils." 




JAMES. 



84 



+e 



OTEL CHAMBERLIN, ^^ ^>^ 



OLD POINT COMFORT, 



^ ^Jk- FORTRESS MONROE. VIRGINIA. 
Headquarters for Army and Navy. 




c3^ 



Heated by Steam* 

Ligfhted by Electricity* 

Perfect Sanitary Arrangements* 

Hot and Cold Fresh and Salt Water Baths. 

Sun Parlors on Every Floor* 

Winter Palm Garden* 

Music Every Eveningf* 



One of the most luxurious and comfortable hotels in the South* 
Winter rates, $4*00 per day and upwards* 

GEORGE W* SWETT, Manager* 



^ 



i.^n 



• X 



X 

o 



<- t/j 






a 



r. = 
i-t- ^j 

(/5 

r3 O 
(T ri 

n 



%^ 



TERMS, $3.00 AND UPWARDS PER DAY. J^ <K 0| 

U 6 




# 



*i3THdiwd aaxv^xsmTi hoj qkhs 



